Parictis

Parictis Temporal range: Eocene–Miocene PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Ursidae
Subfamily:	Amphicynodontinae
Genus:	Parictis
Species
See text

Parictis is the earliest genus of bear known. It was a very small and graceful ursid with a skull only 7 cm long. Parictis first appeared in North America in the Late Eocene (ca. 38 million years ago), but it did not arrive in Eurasia until the Miocene. There is some suggestion that Parictis may have emigrated from Asia into North America during the major sea level low circa 37 mya, because of the continued evolution of the Amphicynodontinae into the Hemicyoninae in Asia. Although no Parictis fossils have been found in East Asia, Parictis does appear in Eurasia and Africa but not until the Miocene.

Species

• P. dakotensis Clark 1936 37 Million years old
• P. gilpini Clark & Guensburg 1972 35 Million years old
• P. major Clark & Guensburg 1972
• P. montanus Clark & Guensburg 1972 36 Million years old
• P. parvus Clark & Beerbower, 1967 38 Million years old
• P. personi Chaffee 1954 33 Million years old
• P. primaevus, Scott 1893 Although Hall (1931) thought to reassign this species to the Canidae, Hunt (1998) clearly places it within the Ursidae, under Parictis.

Formerly classed under Parictis

• P. bathygenus White 1947 is no longer considered a species of Parictis, having been reassigned to the genus Cynelos, in the Amphicyonidae ("bear dog") family.