The common feature for members of this mirorder is ossified tentorium cerebelli and the fusion of the scaphoid and lunate bones in the wrist.

[11] According to recent studies, the closest relatives of Ferae are members of clade Pan-Euungulata (group that includes mirorder Euungulata[13][14] and extinct genus Protungulatum).

Research based on immunodiffusion technique[21] and comparison of protein and DNA sequences[22][23][24] revealed the close relationships between pangolins and carnivorans, with whom they also share a few unusual derived morphological and anatomical traits, such as the ossified tentorium cerebelli and the fusion of the scaphoid and lunate bones in the wrist.

[9] The Halliday et al. (2015) phylogenetic analysis of hundreds of morphological characters of Paleocene placentals found instead that creodonts might be the sister group to Pholidotamorpha (pangolins and their stem-relatives).

Members of this group are now part of clade Pan-Carnivora and sister taxa to Carnivoramorpha (carnivorans and their stem-relatives), split in two groups: order Oxyaenodonta on one side and on the other side order Hyaenodonta plus its stem-relatives, like family Wyolestidae (that only contains genus Wyolestes),[26] genus Simidectes[27][28] and clade made of genera Altacreodus and Tinerhodon.