Prohesperocyon

Taxobox
name = "Prohesperocyon"cite journal| last = Wang| first = Xiaoming| year = 1994 |title = Phylogenetic systematics of the Hesperocyoninae| journal = Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History| volume = 221| pages= 1-207| url = http://hdl.handle.net/2246/829]
fossil_range = Late Eocene
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Carnivora
familia = Canidae
subfamilia = †Hesperocyoninae
genus = †"Prohesperocyon"
genus_authority = Wang, 1994
species = †"P. wilsoni"
binomial = †"Prohesperocyon wilsoni"
binomial_authority = (Gustafson, 1986)

"Prohesperocyon" ("before "Hesperocyon") is an extinct genus of dog (family Canidae) named by Xiaoming Wang in 1994. Only a single species, "Prohesperocyon wilsoni", is recognized. "Prohesperocyon" inhabited Texas during the late Eocene, approximately 36 million years ago. "Prohesperocyon" was first described as a new species of the genus "Hesperocyon", but Wang placed it in a new genus because it lacks features of the skull and dentition found in all other canids, including "Hesperocyon". More recent studies indicate that "Prohesperocyon" may not even belong to Canidae.cite journal | author = Wesley-Hunt, G.D. | coauthors = Werdelin, L. | year = 2005 | title = Basicranial morphology and phylogenetic position of the upper Eocene carnivoramorphan "Quercygale" | journal = Acta Palaeontologica Polonica | volume = 50 | issue = 4 | pages = 837-846 | url = http://app.pan.pl/acta50/app50-837.pdf | accessdate = 2008-05-05] Although "Prohesperocyon" may be the most basal known canid, "Hesperocyon" appears in the fossil record before "Prohesperocyon".

References