Prototocyon
Prototocyon Temporal range: Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓ | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Carnivora |
Family: | Canidae |
Genus: | †Prototocyon Pohle, 1928 |
Type species | |
†Prototocyon curvipalatus Bose, 1880 | |
Species | |
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Synonyms | |
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Prototocyon is an extinct genus of small omnivorous canid that lived during the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene.[1] It is closely related to the living bat-eared fox (Otocyon).
Taxonomy
Prototocyon was named by Pohle (1928) and was assigned to Canidae by Carroll (1988).[2] Old literature relates it to Vulpes bengalensis, but not more modern literature (e.g. McKenna and Bell.[3][4] A 2013 study stated that the genus "is only doubtfully distinct from Otocyon" the genus of the living bat-eared fox.[5]
Description
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/Otocyon_megalotis_-_Etosha_2014.jpg/220px-Otocyon_megalotis_-_Etosha_2014.jpg)
Prototocyon was a small canine similar to the bat-eared fox in overall morphology and likely in habits as well. It differed from the modern bat-eared fox mainly in its more primitive dentition.[6]
Fossil distribution
Fossil remains of P. curvipalatus were recovered from the early Pleistocene Upper Siwaliks horizon of the Siwalik Hills, India (Colbert 1935; Pilgrim 1932).
Fossils of P recki have been found in the Olduvai Gorge area of Tanzania.[6]
References
- ^ Wang, Xiaoming; Tedford, Richard H.; Antón, Mauricio. Dogs: their fossil relatives and evolutionary history.
- ^ Carroll, R. L. (1988). Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W.H. Freeman and Company.
- ^ McKenna, M. C.; Bell, S. K. (1997). Classification of mammals above the species level. New York: Columbia University Press.
- ^ Gompper, Matthew E.; Vanak, Abi Tamim (9 August 2006). Mammalian Species No. 795, pp. 1–5, 3 figs. Vulpes bengalensis (PDF). American Society of Mammalogists. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-21.
- ^ Hartstone-Rose, Adam; Kuhn, Brian F.; Nalla, Shahed; Werdelin, Lars; Berger, Lee R. (February 2013). "A new species of fox from the Australopithecus sediba type locality, Malapa, South Africa". Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa. 68 (1): 1–9. doi:10.1080/0035919X.2012.748698. ISSN 0035-919X.
- ^ a b Werdelin, Lars; Sanders, William Joseph (2010). Cenozoic Mammals of Africa. University of California Press. p. 612. ISBN 9780520257214.
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- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Mammalia
- Order: Carnivora
- Suborder: Caniformia
Phlaocyonini | |||||||||
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Borophagini |
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Urocyon |
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Vulpes | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Canini |
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