''Amphictis'' was an extinct genus of ailurid that existed from the

Late Oligocene The Chattian is, in the geologic timescale, the younger of two ages or upper of two stages of the Oligocene Epoch/ Series. It spans the time between . The Chattian is preceded by the Rupelian and is followed by the Aquitanian (the lowest stage ...

to the

Middle Miocene The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages: the Langhian and Serravallian stages. The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene. The sub-epoch lasted from 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma to 11.608 ± 0.005 Ma (million y ...

with

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s found in

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

with a total of nine described species. The interrelationships of the different species as well as their relationship to the other ailurids is not fully understood. Usually ''Amphictis'' is classified in the basal monotypic subfamily Amphictinae, but there is not certain as the genus could potentially be a

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

with the Oligocene species ''A. borbonica'' being a potential sister taxon to the ancestor of the subfamily

Ailurinae Ailurinae is a subfamily of Ailuridae (of which this is the only extant subfamily out of three). While it is represented by the extant genus '' Ailurus'', there were a handful of genera whose fossils have been found across the Holarctic region. T ...

(today consisting just the

red panda The red panda (''Ailurus fulgens''), also known as the lesser panda, is a small mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It has dense reddish-brown fur with a black belly and legs, white-lined ears, a mostly white muzzle ...

), while a Middle Miocene clade consisting of an

anagenesis Anagenesis is the gradual evolution of a species that continues to exist as an interbreeding population. This contrasts with cladogenesis, which occurs when there is branching or splitting, leading to two or more lineages and resulting in separate ...

line from ''A. prolongata''–to–''A. wintershofensis''–to–''A. cuspida'' being closer to the ancestry of the now extinct

Simocyoninae Simocyoninae is an extinct subfamily of Ailuridae (of which the only recent member is the red panda). The taxonomic history of this group was complicated, as researchers placed various fossil caniform genera into the subfamily. In addition to ''S ...

(with ''A. wintershofensis'' being the sister taxon to the clade). This is due to the nature of their

plesiomorphic In phylogenetics, a plesiomorphy ("near form") and symplesiomorphy are synonyms for an ancestral character shared by all members of a clade, which does not distinguish the clade from other clades. Plesiomorphy, symplesiomorphy, apomorphy, and ...

nature of their anatomy.

References

Oligocene carnivorans Miocene carnivorans Ailuridae Prehistoric carnivoran genera {{Paleo-carnivora-stub