The Palaeomerycidae are an extinct family of ruminants (thus being even-toed ungulates of the order Artiodactyla), probably ancestral to deer and musk deer. Palaeomerycids lived in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America from 55.8 to 4.9 million years ago (from the Eocene to Pliocene epochs), existing for about 50 million years.