Phlaocyon
| Phlaocyon Temporal range:
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|---|---|
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| Type specimen of Phlaocyon leucosteus | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Canidae |
| Subfamily: | †Borophaginae |
| Tribe: | †Phlaocyonini |
| Genus: | †Phlaocyon Matthew 1899, p. 54 |
| Type species | |
| †P. leucosteus | |
| Species | |
|
See text | |
| Synonyms | |
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Phlaocyon (from Greek phlao, "eat greedily" and cyon, "dog").
Phylogeny
When discovered in the 19th century and during the following decades, Phlaocyon was thought to be ancestral to raccoons because of shared convergent adaptations toward hypocarnivorous dentitions, but Hough 1948 was the first to discover the canid nature of the middle ear region in P. leucosteus and Phlaocyon in now believed to be part of very diverse clade of hypocarnivorous canids, the Phlaocyonini, and only distantly related to raccoons.[3]
Anatomy
Phlaocyon was about 80 centimetres (31 in) in body length, and looked more like a cat or raccoon than a dog, but its skull anatomy shows it to be a primitive canid. Phlaocyon probably lived like a raccoon, often climbing trees. Its head was short, wide, and had forward-facing eyes. Unlike modern canides, Phlaocyon had no specialised teeth for slicing flesh. It is thought to have been an omnivore.[5]
Species
- †P. achoros Frailey 1979, p. 134
- †P. annectens Peterson 1907, p. 53
- †P. latidens Cope 1881, p. 181
- †P. leucosteus Matthew 1899, p. 54
- †P. mariae Wang, Tedford & Taylor 1999, p. 84
- †P. marslandensis McGrew 1941, p. 33
- †P. minor Matthew 1907, p. 189
- †P. multicuspus Romer & Sutton 1927
- †P. taylori Hayes 2000, p. 34
- †P. yatkolai Wang, Tedford & Taylor 1999, p. 83
Fossil distribution
- Foree Site, John Day Formation, Wheeler County, Oregon (P. latidens) ~30.8–20.6 Ma.
- Brooksville 2 Site, Hernando County, Florida (P. taylori) ~30.8–20.6 Ma.
- SB-1A Live Oak Site, Suwannee County, Florida (P. leucosteus) ~24.8–20.6 Ma.[6]
- Buda Mine, Alachua County, Florida (P. indent) ~24.8–20.6 Ma.[7]
- Wewela Site, Tripp County, South Dakota (P. minor) ~26.3–24.8 Ma.
References
Notes
- ^ Wang & Tedford 2008
- ^ "Phlaocyon". Fossilworks. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- ^ Wang, Tedford & Taylor 1999, p. 66
- ^ Wang, Tedford & Taylor 1999, pp. 83–85
- ^ Palmer 1999, p. 312
- ^ "SB-1A ( of the United States)". Fossilworks. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- ^ "Buda Mine Site". Fossilworks. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
Sources
- Cope, E. D. (1881). "On the Nimravidae and Canidae of the Miocene period". Bull. U.S. Geol. Geogr. Surv. Territories. 6: 165–181. Retrieved September 20, 2014.
- Frailey, D. (1979). "The large mammals of the Buda Local Fauna (Arikareean: Alachua County, Florida)". Bull. Florida State Mus. Biol. Sci. 2 (2): 123–173. Retrieved September 20, 2014.
- Hayes, F. G. (2000). "The Brooksville 2 local fauna (Arikareean, latest Oligocene) Hernando County, Florida". Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History. 43 (1): 1–47. Retrieved September 20, 2014.
- Hough, J. R. (1948). "The auditory region in some members of the Procyonidae, Canidae and Ursidae: its significance in the phylogeny of the Carnivora". Bulletin of the AMNH. 92. hdl:2246/921.
- .
- hdl:2246/1534.
- Matthew, W. D. (1907). "A lower Miocene fauna from South Dakota". Bulletin of the AMNH. 23: 169–219. hdl:2246/1483.
- McGrew, P. O. (1941). "A new procyonid from the Miocene of Nebraska". Field Museum of Natural History. 8 (5): 33–36. Retrieved September 20, 2014.
- Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. ISBN 1-84028-152-9.
- Peterson, O. A. (1907). "The Miocene beds of western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming and their vertebrate faunae". Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 4: 21–72. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-231-13528-3. (with illustrations by Mauricio Antón)
- Wang, X.; Tedford, R. H.; Taylor, B. E. (1999). "Phylogenetic systematics of the Borophaginae (Carnivora, Canidae)". Bulletin of the AMNH. 243. hdl:2246/1588.