Stenoplesictis is an extinct genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of carnivorous cat

Cat

The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...

-like mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

s belonging to the superfamily

Taxonomic rank

In biological classification, rank is the level in a taxonomic hierarchy. Examples of taxonomic ranks are species, genus, family, and class. Each rank subsumes under it a number of less general categories...

 Aeluroidea

Aeluroidea

Aeluroidea is an extant and extinct superfamily of feline-like carnivores which are or were endemic to North America, South America, Africa, and Asia...

, endemic to Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 from the Oligocene

Oligocene

The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...

 33.9—28.4 Ma, existing for approximately .

Stenoplesictis is shown to have an omnivorous diet or more precisely, hypercarnivorous

Hypercarnivore

A hypercarnivore is an animal which has a diet that is more than 70% meat, with the balance consisting of non-animal foods such as fungi, fruits or other plant material. Some examples include the big cats, dolphins, eagles, snakes, marlin, most sharks, and such invertebrates as octopuses and sea...

 to hypercarnivorous

Mesocarnivore

A mesocarnivore is an animal whose diet consists of 50–70% meat with the balance consisting of nonvertebrate foods which may include fungi, fruits, and other plant material...

.

Taxonomy

Stenoplesictis was named by Filhol (1880). It was assigned to Aeluroidea

Aeluroidea

Aeluroidea is an extant and extinct superfamily of feline-like carnivores which are or were endemic to North America, South America, Africa, and Asia...

 by Hunt (1989) and Hunt (1998); to Viverridae by Flynn (1998); and reassigned to Stenoplesictinae by Morlo et al. (2007).