Musteloidea is a superfamily of carnivoran mammals united by shared characteristics of the skull and teeth. Musteloids are the sister group of pinnipeds.

Taxonomy

Musteloidea comprises the following families:

• Ailuridae, the red panda (and its extinct kin).

  Mephitidae, skunks and stink badgers.

  Mustelidae, the weasel (mustelid) family, including new- and old-world badgers, ferrets and polecats, fishers, grisons and ratelss, martens and sabless, minks, river and sea otters, stoats and erminess, tayras and wolverines.

  Procyonidae, raccoons and raccoon-like procyonids, including coatis, kinkajous, olingos, the olinguito, ringtailss and cacomistles.

Evolution

In North America, ursidss (bears) and musteloids first appeared in the Chadronian of the late Eocene, and in early-Oligocene Europe, immediately following the Grande Coupure extinction event.

The following cladogram is based on molecular phylogeny of six genes in Flynn (2005), with the musteloids updated following the multigene analysis of Law et al. (2018).

References