Musteloidea

Musteloidea is a superfamily of carnivoran mammals united by shared characteristics of the skull and teeth. Musteloids are the sister group of pinnipeds, the group which includes seals.^[1]

Musteloidea Temporal range: Oligocene–Present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Left-right: spotted skunk, red panda, wolverine and raccoon; representing the families Mephitidae, Ailuridae, Mustelidae and Procyonidae.
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Parvorder:	Mustelida
Superfamily:	Musteloidea Fischer, 1817
Families
Ailuridae Mephitidae Mustelidae (type) Procyonidae Incertae sedis †Peignictis

Musteloidea comprises the following families:

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

• Mephitidae, the skunks and stink badgers.

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

• Procyonidae, the raccoons and raccoon-like procyonids, including coatimundis, kinkajous, olingos, olinguitos, ringtails and cacomistles.

In North America, ursids (bears) and musteloids first appeared in the Chadronian^{[citation needed]} 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),^[2] with the musteloids updated following the multigene analysis of Law et al. (2018).^[3]

Caniformia	Canidae (dogs and other canines) Arctoidea Ursidae (bears) Pinnipedia (seals) Musteloidea Mephitidae (skunks) Ailuridae (red pandas) Procyonidae (raccoons, coatis, kinkajous) Mustelidae (weasels, otters, badgers) ("weasel" superfamily)