Stenoplesictis

Stenoplesictis Temporal range: Oligocene 31–23.9 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Stenoplesictis cayluxi mandibles, National Museum of Natural History, France
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	†Stenoplesictidae
Genus:	†Stenoplesictis Filhol, 1880
Type species
†Stenoplesictis cayluxi Filhol, 1880
Other species
†S. minor Filhol, 1882 †S. crocheti Peigne & de Bonis, 1999 Species pending reassessment †S. muhoronii Schmidt-Kittler, 1987

Stenoplesictis is an extinct genus of enigmatic aeluroid endemic to western Europe that lived exclusively during the Oligocene. It was named by Henri Filhol in 1880 and today contains the type species S. cayluxi and two other species S. minor and S. crocheti. While several species from Asia and Africa have originally been assigned to it, only S. muhoronii remains and is currently pending reassessment to another genus.

Species of Stenoplesictis were generally small-sized, with the smallest one, S. minor, being the size of mongooses of the genus Helogale. It differs from other stenoplesictid relatives like Palaeoprionodon and Haplogale by several traits like a flattened upper face of the skull, somewhat narrow snout, and specific differences in its auditory region and dentition. They appeared in Europe by the Early Oligocene along with various other carnivorans including other stenoplesictids and lasted up to the Late Oligocene.