Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 21, 2026

Fissipedia

Fissipedia or land-dweling carnivorans is a former suborder and paraphyletic group of placental mammals comprising the largely land-based families of the order Carnivora. In some former taxonomic classifications, Pinnipedia was treated as an suborder in order Carnivora alongside Fissipedia and Creodonta. rather than as a subgroup of "dog-like" carnivorans.

Last revised
Jul 21, 2026
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Citations
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Fissipedia
Temporal range: early Paleocene to present
Scientific classification Edit this classification
(obsolete)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Placentalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Fissipedia
Blumenbach, 17911
Superfamilies
[see classification]
Synonyms
  • Fissipeda (Blumenbach, 1791)
  • Fissipedina (Pearse, 1936)2

Fissipedia ("split feet") or land-dweling carnivorans is a former suborder and paraphyletic group of placental mammals comprising the largely land-based families of the order Carnivora.3 In some former taxonomic classifications, Pinnipedia was treated as an suborder in order Carnivora alongside Fissipedia and Creodonta.4 rather than as a subgroup of "dog-like" carnivorans.

Classification

  • Suborder: Fissipedia (Blumenbach, 1791) (land-dweling carnivorans)
    • Superfamily: Canoidea (Waldheim, 1817) ("dog-like" carnivorans)
      • Family: Canidae (Waldheim, 1817) [a group with dogs and amphicyonids as its members at that time]
      • Family: Mustelidae (Waldheim, 1817) [a group with weasels, ferrets, badgers, otters and skunks as its members at that time]
      • Family: Procyonidae (Gray, 1825) [a group with raccoons and red panda as its members at that time]
      • Family: Ursidae (Waldheim, 1817) (bears)
    • Superfamily: Feloidea (Waldheim, 1817) ("cat-like" carnivorans)
    • Superfamily: †Miacoidea (Cope, 1880)
      • Family: †Miacidae (Cope, 1880) [a group with representatives of families Miacidae and Viverravidae as its members at that time]
References

References

  1. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1791.) "Handbuch der Naturgeschichte. Vierte auflage." Göttingen, Johann Christian Dieterich, xii+704+[33] pp., 3 pls.
  2. Arthur Sperry Pearse (1936.) Zoological names. A list of phyla, classes, and orders, prepared for section F, American Association for the Advancement of Science American Association for the Advancement of Science
  3. Ledje, C.; Arnason, U. (1996). "Phylogenetic analyses of complete cytochromeb genes of the order Carnivora with particular emphasis on the Caniformia". Journal of Molecular Evolution. 42 (2): 135–144. doi:10.1007/BF02198839. PMID 8919865.
  4. Simpson, George Gaylord (1945). "The principles of classification and a classification of mammals". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 85: 350. hdl:2246/1104.