Cimolestes incisus (Marsh 1889; Cretaceous-Paleocene, 66mya). Cimolestids were once considered the last common ancestors to Carnivora and Creodonta. Here Cimolestes is close to the base of the marsupial carnivores, the Creodonta.
Traditionally Cimolestes is considered a basal taeniodont. Other traditional taeniodonts include Protictis, Onychodectes and Stylinodon. In the large reptile tree none of these nest with one another. This may be due to eyeballing these taxa, rather than entering them into a wide gamut phylogenetic analysis |