Boualitomidae ("Bou Alian cutters") is a family of extinct predatory

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s from extinct order

Hyaenodonta Hyaenodonta (" hyena teeth") is an extinct order of hypercarnivorous placental pan-carnivoran mammals from mirorder Ferae. Hyaenodonts were important mammalian predators that arose during the early Paleocene in Europe and persisted well into the ...

. Fossil remains of these mammals are known from middle

Paleocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), E ...

to late

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

deposits in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. Boualitomids had only three pairs of premolars in the lower dentition, lacking the first one.E. Gheerbrant, M. Iarochene, M. Amaghzaz and B. Bouya (2006.
"Early African hyaenodontid mammals and their bearing on the origin of the Creodonta."
Geological Magazine 143(4):475-489Borths, Matthew R., Heritage, Steven, Gunnell, Gregg, Friscia, Anthony, Seiffert, Erik (2020) "Persistence of the oldest hyaenodont clade through the Eocene of Africa", in
"The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 80th annual meeting - Virtual 2020"
'

Classification and phylogeny

Taxonomy

* Family: †Boualitomidae ** Genus: †'' Boualitomus'' *** †''Boualitomus marocanensis'' ** Genus: †'' Lahimia'' *** †''Lahimia selloumi'' ** ''

Incertae sedis ' () or ''problematica'' is a term used for a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertain ...

'': *** † Boualitomidae sp. (Locality BQ-2, Fayum, Egypt) *** † Boualitomidae sp. (Quarry L-41, Fayum, Egypt)

Phylogeny

The phylogenetic relationships of family Boualitomidae are shown in the following cladogram:

References

{{Hyaenodonta Hyaenodonts Paleogene mammals of Africa Prehistoric mammal families