Hemicyoninae
Encyclopedia
Hemicyoninae is an extinct subfamily of bear-like mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

s of the family Ursidae endemic to North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 during Oligocene
Oligocene
The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...

 through Miocene
Miocene
The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...

, living from ~33.9—7.2 Ma, existing for approximately .

Hemicyoninae includes the genera Cephalogale
Cephalogale
Cephalogale is an extinct genus of bear-like hemicyonid carnivore of the late Oligocene through Miocene epochs, endemic to North America and Europe living from around 33.9—20 Ma, existing for approximately ....

, Phoberocyon
Phoberocyon
Phoberocyon is a large extinct genus of carnivorous Ursidae, subfamily Hemicyonidae, endemic to what would be North America during the Miocene living from 20.6—16.3 mya, existing for approximately .-Taxonomy:Phoberocyon was named by Ginsburg...

, and Plithocyon
Plithocyon
Plithocyon is an extinct genus of bear-like hemicyonid carnivore of the Miocene epoch, endemic to North America and Europe living from ~15.97—7.25 Ma, existing for approximately .-Taxonomy:Plithocyon was named by Ginsburg...

.

Taxonomy

Hemicyoninae was named by Frick (1926) and was assigned to Ursidae by Qiu et al. (1991) and Hunt (1998).
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