Subparictidae

Subparictidae is an extinct family of early Paleogene arctoid carnivorans endemic to North America that closely related to bears. They were small, raccoon-like mammals that lived from the Eocene to the early Miocene. This family includes a handful of genera such as Subparictis, Parictis, Nothocyon, and Eoarctos.

Subparictidae Temporal range: Chadronian - Arikareean
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Superfamily:	Ursoidea
Family:	†Subparictidae Baskin and Tedford, 1996
Genera
†Subparictis †Parictis †Nothocyon †Eoarctos

Characteristics

Unlike other early caniforms, subparictids had simple molars and surrounding or at least partial cingulums.

Systematics

Subparictidae was originally described in 1996 to contain the genera Subparictis, Nothocyon, and Parictis. At the time, it was suggested to be a sister-family to Ursidae. Other authors have placed Parictis and Subparictis in the Amphicynodontidae. A fourth genus, Eoarctos, was described in 2023 and the paper supports a sister grouping of subparictids and ursids.

Below is the phylogeny recovered by Wang et al. (2023):

Subparictidae	Subparictis gilpini Subparictis parvus Subparictis montanus Subparictis dakotensis Parictis primaevus Eoarctos vorax Nothocyon geismarianus

Paleobiology

The subparictids are currently found in North America. Coming from the Paleogene period fossils have been found Chadronian through Whitneyan of the northern Great Plains of United States and southern Canada, as well as the Arikareean from Oregon. Early members of the group were in competition with the earliest canids, often found in the periphery in sites where they are found. Within the family over time, the genera Eoarctos and Nothocyon had evolved increasingly robust teeth adapted for durophagy. Based on the complete anatomical remains of Eoarctos, the subparictids would have occupied an ecological niche similar to procyonids and gulonines.