Cynarctoides lemur

Cynarctoides lemur
Cynarctoides lemur
Temporal range: Miocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Subfamily: Borophaginae
Tribe: †Phlaocyonini
Genus: Cynarctoides
Species: Cynarctoides lemur
Range of Cynarctoides lemur based on fossil record

Cynarctoides lemur is an extinct species of Cynarctoides, belonging to the subfamily Borophaginae and tribe Phlaocyonini, a canid endemic to various parts of central North America from the Late Oligocene to Miocene epoch (Harrisonian stage) living 24.8—20.6 mya and existed for approximately 4.2 million years.

Fossil evidence suggests that C. lemur migrated to the east and southeast over time becoming extinct in the northwest followed by upper Great Plains and then the southeast.

Contents

Taxonomy

Cynarctoides lemur was named by Cope (1879). It was recombined as Galecynus lemur by Cope (1881); it was recombined as Cynodictis lemur by Scott (1898); it was recombined as Nothocyon lemur by Matthew (1899), Wortman and Matthew (1899), Wortman and Matthew (1899), Merriam (1906), Matthew (1907), Thorpe (1922), Hall and Martin (1930), Macdonald (1963), Macdonald (1970) and Munthe (1998); it was recombined as Cormocyon lemur by Wang and Fremd (1994); it was recombined as Cynarctoides lemur by Xiaoming Wang, Richard H. Tedford, et al. (1999).[1][2][3][4][5]

Morphology

Body mass

Two specimens were examined by Legendre and Roth for body mass.[6]

  • Specimen 1 was estimated to weigh 0.960 kg (2.1 lb).
  • Specimen 2 was estimated to weigh 1.02 kg (2.2 lb).

Fossil distribution

References

  1. ^ W. B. Scott. 1898. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 37(157):73-81
  2. ^ W. D. Matthew. 1907. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 23(9)
  3. ^ J. R. Macdonald. 1970. Review of the Miocene Wounded Knee faunas of southwestern South Dakota. Bulletin of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Science 8:165-82
  4. ^ K. Munthe. 1998. Canidae. In C. M. Janis, K. M. Scott, and L. L. Jacobs (eds.), Evolution of Tertiary mammals of North America 124-143
  5. ^ Phylogentic Systematic of the Borophanginae, X. Wang, 1999
  6. ^ S. Legendre and C. Roth. 1988. Correlation of carnassial tooth size and body weight in recent carnivores (Mammalia). Historical Biology
  • Martin, L.D. 1989. Fossil history of the terrestrial carnivora. Pages 536 - 568 in J.L. Gittleman, editor. Carnivore Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution, Vol. 1. Comstock Publishing Associates: Ithaca.
  • - PaleoDataBase - Cynarctoides lemur

=