Miacids were small carnivorous mammals that evolved 65 million years ago after the extinction of dinosaurs. They gave rise to modern carnivores such as cats, dogs, and bears. Miacids were divided into two groups, Miacidae and Viverravidae, which evolved into caniforms and feliforms respectively. They lived in trees or on the ground and consumed small mammals and invertebrates. Miacids were among the first mammals to develop teeth for flesh tearing and lived in Eurasia and North America.
Miacids are an extinct group of carnivorous mammals that gave rise to cats, bears, dogs, skunks, mongooses, hyenas, and all other felines and canids. Relatively small and often described as marten-like, myacids were the first wave of carnivorous mammals to evolve 65 million years ago, after an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs and left numerous ecological niches open. Miacids persisted until 33 million years ago. The surviving myacids evolved into the carnivores we know today, including the family dog or cat. Carnivorans are sometimes referred to as the most intelligent group of mammals outside of the great apes.
Relatively small carnivores, myacids were usually the size of house cats, although some species were as large as modern wolves. Many were arboreal (lived in trees), but some lived on the ground, where they consumed small mammals such as rodents and invertebrates such as beetles. Miacids are divided into two groups: Miacidae, which evolved into the caniforms (bear-dogs, dogs, raccoons, bears, and weasels), and Viverravidae, which evolved into the feliforms (cats, hyenas, and mongooses). Like many other mammals, myacids were covered with a coat of fur, had tails, and high metabolisms.
Miacids were one of the first mammalian carnivores. Mammals had existed for tens of millions of years before the extinction of the dinosaurs, but they were mostly small rodent- or shrew-like herbivores and detrivores that prowled at night, trying to avoid being eaten by the many terrifying carnivorous dinosaurs everywhere . With the extinction of their oppressors, the dinosaurs, the mammals were finally free to expand and conquer the world, a position they still enjoy today.
Miacids were among the first mammals to develop teeth for shearing and tearing flesh, a feature retained by all modern carnivores. Miacids lived in Eurasia and North America, inhabiting near-world tropical forests that thrived before the onset of the Ice Age about 23 million years ago.
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