miacidadj.n.
/ˈmʌɪəsᵻd/, /mʌɪˈasɪd/, U.S. /ˈmaɪəsəd/, /maɪˈæsəd/ Palaeontology.
A. adj.
Of, relating to, or designating the family Miacidae of extinct small carnivorous mammals, known from Palaeocene and Eocene fossils in North America.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Carnivora > [adjective] > of or relating to extinct types
creodont1891
miacid1905
1905 Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 9 401 The following Miacid features may be selected.
1930 Science 26 Dec. 643/1 This was not because he doubted the ancestral kinship of the miacid creodonts to the higher carnivores.
1973 R. F. Ewer Carnivores v. 225 It is impossible to believe that any carnivore could have evolved a dentition of miacid type without some corresponding behavioural adaptations.
1998 Contrib. Mus. Paleontol. Univ. Michigan 30 83 Systematic analysis of these new collections reveals..one new species of miacid carnivore, Vulpavus farsonensis.
B. n.
A mammal of the family Miacidae.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Carnivora > [noun] > extinct types of
creodont1891
miacid1932
1932 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 18 522 Creodonta are represented by at least two distinct members of the Hyaenodontidae and by a miascid.
1966 R. Morris & D. Morris Men & Pandas viii. 191 About thirty million years ago the ancestors of all the modern carnivores appeared on the scene. These were the miacids and they were small creatures rather like present-day civets.
1997 Jrnl. Paleontol. 71 1172 The phylogenetic relationship of Oodectes to other miacids, and relationships among early Eocene miacids more generally.., are less well resolved.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1905