Biology:Prototocyon
| Prototocyon | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Canidae |
| Genus: | †Prototocyon Pohle, 1928 |
| Type species | |
| †Prototocyon curvipalatus Bose, 1880
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| 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
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.. American Society of Mammalogists. http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/VHAYSSEN/msi/pdf/i1545-1410-795-1-1.pdf.
- ↑ 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" (in en). Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 68 (1): 1–9. doi:10.1080/0035919X.2012.748698. ISSN 0035-919X. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0035919X.2012.748698.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Werdelin, Lars; Sanders, William Joseph (2010). Cenozoic Mammals of Africa. University of California Press. p. 612. ISBN 9780520257214.
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