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Fauna

In the Early Miocene, several Oligocene groups were still diverse, including nimravids, entelodonts, and three-toed equids. As in the previous Oligocene Epoch, oreodonts were still diverse, only to disappear in the earliest Pliocene. During the later Miocene mammals were more modern, with easily recognizable canids, bears, red pandas, procyonids, equids, beavers, deer, camelids, and whales, along with now-extinct groups like borophagine canids, certain gomphotheres, three-toed horses, and hornless rhinos like Teleoceras and Aphelos. The late Miocene also marks the extinction of the last-surviving members of the hyaenodonts. Islands began to form between South and North America in the Late Miocene, allowing ground sloths like Thinobadistes to island-hop to North America. The expansion of silica-rich C grasses led to worldwide extinctions of herbivorous species without high-crowned teeth. Mustelids diversified into their largest forms as terrestrial predators like Ekorus, Eomellivora, and Megalictis and bunodont otters like Enhydriodon and Sivaonyx appeared. Eulipotyphlans were widespread in Europe, being less diverse in Southern Europe than farther north due to the aridity of the former.