Another Vulpavus enters the LRT, but not close to the first one

Contra traditional genomic studies,
the origin of placental mammals occurred between the extant mouse-like marsupial without a pouch, Monodelphis (Fig. 1), and the larger, late surviving, Early Eocene arboreal placental, Vulpavus palustris (Fig. 2). Evidently both had their genesis in the Early Jurassic based on chronological bracketing.

According to Wikipedia,
“Vulpavus (“fox grandfather”) is an extinct genus of Miacidae. It measured 60–90 cm in length and had an estimated weight over 1.19 kg (in V. palustris).” That is all Wikipedia has to say about this largely overlooked, yet important basal placental.

Vulpavus palustris
(Marsh 1871) Bridgerian (Early to Middle Eocene) was a primitive miacid, a mink-like basal member of the Placentalia. Here Vulpavus was derived from a sister to Monodelphys (Fig. 1) and phylogenetically preceded Middle Paleocene Protictis and the extant coatimundi, Nasua. Both are basal members of the basal placental clade Carnivora.

A second traditional Vulpavus specimen,
Vulpavus (Phlaodectes) ovatus (Fig. 3), does not nest with the first, according to the large reptile tree (LRT, 1870+ taxa). Here it nests with Onychodectes and other more terrestrial taxa at the base of the larger herbivorous placentals that give birth to precocial young (able to walk and follow their mother shortly after birth). Note the longer premaxilla and smaller teeth.

According to Wikipedia, “Miacidae as traditionally conceived is not a monophyletic group; it is a paraphyletic array of stem taxa. Traditionally, Miacidae and Viverravidae had been classified in a superfamily, Miacoidea. Today, Carnivora and Miacoidea are grouped together in the crown-clade Carnivoramorpha, and the Miacoidea are regarded as basal carnivoramorphs. Some species of the genus Miacis are closely related to the order Carnivora, but only the species Miacis cognitus is a true carnivoran, as it is classified in the Caniformia.”

Traditional members of the Taeniodonta
nest in far flung clades within Theria in the LRT. Taeniodon itself is a bivalve mollusc, so we should probably forget this clade and never mention it again.

In the LRT,
(subset Fig. 4) Miacis nests within the Carnivora, at the base of the clade that ultimately produces sea lions. So Vulpavus and Onychodestes are not related to Miacis in the LRT.

References
Marsh 0C 1871. Notice of some new fossil mammals and birds from the Tertiary formations of the West. American Journal of Science, Series 3, 2: 120-127.
Matthew WD 1909. VI. – The Carnivora and Insectivora of the Bridger Basin, Middle Eocene. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History. 9(6):576pp.

wiki/Protictius
wiki/Vulpavus
wiki/Nasua
wiki/Onychodectes – not yet posted
wiki/Miacidae