''Palaeomephitis steinheimensis'' is an extinct species of

musteloid Musteloidea is a superfamily of carnivoran mammals united by shared characteristics of the skull and teeth. Musteloids are the sister group of pinnipeds, the group which includes seals. Musteloidea comprises the following families: * Ailurida ...

, possibly a mephitid (skunk), from the Miocene epoch of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Description

''Palaeomephitis steinheimensis'' was described by Jäger in 1839 from a well-preserved

cranium The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...

found in Steinheim am Albuch in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

, southern

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Subsequently, different authors considered it to represent a

viverrid Viverridae is a family (biology), family of small to medium-sized feliform mammals, comprising 14 genera with 33 species. This family was named and first described by John Edward Gray in 1821. Viverrids occur all over Africa, in southern Europe, ...

or a leptarctine

mustelid The Mustelidae (; from Latin , weasel) are a diverse family of carnivoran mammals, including weasels, badgers, otters, polecats, martens, grisons, and wolverines. Otherwise known as mustelids (), they form the largest family in the suborde ...

. It was placed in the Mephitinae (now considered to be a distinct family) by Wolsan in 1999, on the evidence of its having an extended

epitympanic recess The epitympanic recess is the portion of the tympanic cavity (of the middle ear) situated superior to the tympanic membrane. The recess lodges the head of malleus, and the body of incus. The mastoid antrum is situated posterior to the recess an ...

to the middle ear. However, Geraads and Spassov (2016) were uncertain it in fact had this expanded recess, since that area of the skull is imperfectly preserved. Due to this and other factors, such as it differing from Mephitidae in some characters, these authors considered the mephitid affinities of ''Palaeomephitis'' doubtful.

Taxonomy

In its traditional skunk classification, ''Palaeomephitis'' is considered to stand close to the two extant species of

stink badger Stink badgers or false badgers are the species of the genus ''Mydaus'' of the skunk family of carnivorans, the Mephitidae. They resemble the better-known members of the family Mustelidae also termed 'badgers' (which are themselves a polyphyleti ...

(''Mydaus'') and the several extinct species of ''

Promephitis ''Promephitis'' is an extinct genus of mephitid, of which several species have been described from the Miocene and early Pliocene of Europe and Asia. Characteristics The fossil remains of the ''Promephitis'' species, like all members of the ...

''. This clade is considered to be a sister group to all other skunks living today and other fossil forms.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18002457 Neogene mammals of Europe Monotypic prehistoric carnivoran genera Mephitidae