Arctoidea

Arctoidea is an infraorder of mostly carnivorous mammals which include the extinct Hemicyonidae (dog-bears), and the extant Musteloidea (weasels, raccoons, skunks, red pandas), Pinnipedia (seals, sea lions), and Ursidae (bears), found in all continents from the Eocene, 46 million years ago, to the present.^[2] The oldest group of the clade is the bears, as their CMAH gene is still intact. The gene became non-functional in the common ancestor of the Mustelida (the musteloids and pinnipeds).^[3] Arctoids are caniforms, along with dogs (canids) and extinct bear dogs (Amphicyonidae). The earliest caniforms were superficially similar to martens, which are tree-dwelling mustelids. Together with feliforms, caniforms compose the order Carnivora; sometimes Arctoidea can be considered a separate suborder from Caniformia and a sister taxon to Feliformia.

Phylum:Chordata

Class:Mammalia

Infraclass:Placentalia

Order:Carnivora

Quick facts Scientific classification, Subclades ...

Arctoidea Temporal range: Eocene–Holocene, 46–0 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Infraclass:	Placentalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Caniformia
Clade:	Canoidea
Infraorder:	Arctoidea Flower, 1869
Subclades
†Lonchocyon Ursoidea Mustelida Musteloidea Pan-Pinnipedia Wolsan et al., 2020[1] †Amphicynodontidae? †Semantoridae Pinnipedimorpha

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