Over in the “tusks” thread, someone (I believe it was Shagnasty but didn’t make a note, and can’t go back while prepping a new GQ thread) gave the derivation of various tusked animals, and said in part:
Okay, when I learned this, Carnivora was broken down:
Suborder Pinnipedia, the marine carnivores
—Family Otariidae, the “true” seals
—Family Odobenidae, the sea lions and fur seals
—a third family consisting of the walrus
…A small foofaraw about possible separate origins for the three families got resolved as to monophyly.
Suborder Fissipedia, the land carnivores
-Superfamily (or Infraorder) Feloidea
—Family Viverridae, the civets, genets, mongooses, and fossa
—Family Hyaenidae, the hyenas and aardwolf
—Family Felidae, the cats, large and small
-Superfamily (or Infraorder) Canoidea
—Family Mustelidae, the weasels and their allies
------various subfamilies, some elevated to family status by some authorities, for things like the skunk, the wolverine, the honey badger, etc.
—Family Procyonidae, the raccoons, with the two pandas either part of this family or given separate status, or the giant panda considered an ursid and the lesser panda a procyonid
—Family Ursidae, the bears
—Family Canida, the dogs, wolves, foxes, and their allies
Both groups have extinct families as well;’ the only one I’m certain of is the Arctocyonidae, the hulking “bear-dogs” of the later Tertiary.
It appears here that somebody’s done one of those DNA-tracer upset-the-applecart reclassifications, and moved the walruses into the Canoidea, elevating that into a Suborder, presumably as opposed to Feloidea.
Anyone want to essay what’s the story behind this?