Creodonta [SEP] parent taxon
does today, only the oxyaenids and the hyaenodontids.
One view of the position of the group is that Creodonta and Carnivora are sister taxa (within a superorder Ferae). Others have argued that insectivorans are more closely related to carnivorans, and creodonts, therefore, are basal eutherians. Others have suggested that Creodonta might not be monophyletic. Polly has argued that the only available synapomorphy between oxyaenids and hyaenodontids is a large metastylar blade on the first molar (M1), but he believes that that feature is common for all
Taxon in disguise
In bacteriology, a taxon in disguise is a species, genus or higher unit of biological classification whose evolutionary history reveals has evolved from another unit of similar or lower rank, making the parent unit paraphyletic. This happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear radically different from the ancestral group, so that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, leaving the latter an evolutionary grade.
While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of