| Cephalogale Temporal range: late Oligocene–Miocene |
|
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Superfamily: | Arctoidea |
| Family: | Hemicyonidae / Ursidae |
| Subfamily: | † Hemicyoninae |
| Genus: | Cephalogale Jourdan, 1862 |
| Species: | C. geoffroyi |
| Binomial name | |
| Cephalogale geoffroyi Filhol, 1879 |
|
Cephalogale is an extinct genus of bear-like hemicyonid carnivore of the late Oligocene through Miocene epochs, endemic to North America and Europe living from around 33.9—20 Ma, existing for approximately 13.9 million years.
Before it was reconsidered to be close to the ancestry of hemicyonids, Cephalogale was once considered to be an ancestor of all bears.[1]
Cephalogale was named by Henri Filhol in 1879. Its type is Cephalogale geoffroyi. It was assigned to Ursidae by Carroll (1988); to Hemicyoninae by Hunt (1998); and to Ursoidea by Wang et al. (2005).[2][3]