Prototocyon
Temporal range:
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Genus: †Prototocyon
Pohle, 1928
Type species
†Prototocyon curvipalatus
Bose, 1880
Species
  • P. curvipalatus
  • P. recki
Synonyms
  • Sivacyon

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

Prototocyon is closely related and likely looked similar to the living bat-eared fox

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

  1. ↑ Wang, Xiaoming; Tedford, Richard H.; Antón, Mauricio. Dogs: their fossil relatives and evolutionary history.
  2. ↑ Carroll, R. L. (1988). Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W.H. Freeman and Company.
  3. ↑ McKenna, M. C.; Bell, S. K. (1997). Classification of mammals above the species level. New York: Columbia University Press.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. 1 2 Werdelin, Lars; Sanders, William Joseph (2010). Cenozoic Mammals of Africa. University of California Press. p. 612. ISBN 9780520257214.
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