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Eucyon
Eucyon (Greek: : good, true; : dog) is an extinct genus of medium-sized omnivorous coyote-like canid that first appeared in the Western United States during the late Middle Miocene 10 million years ago. It was the size of a jackal and weighed around 15 kg. It was one of the few North American mammals which invaded Eurasia about 6 million years ago, followed by the genus going extinct 3 million years ago. This genus is proposed to have given rise to genus Canis 6 million years ago.
~3 min read
Article
8 sectionsContents
- Taxonomy
- ''Eucyon davisi''
- ''Eucyon khoikhoi''
- Description
- Fossil distribution
- Palaeobiology
- Palaeopathology
- References
Eucyon (Greek: : good, true; : dog) is an extinct genus of medium-sized omnivorous coyote-like canid that first appeared in the Western United States during the late Middle Miocene 10 million years ago. It was the size of a jackal and weighed around 15 kg. It was one of the few North American mammals which invaded Eurasia about 6 million years ago, followed by the genus going extinct 3 million years ago. This genus is proposed to have given rise to genus Canis 6 million years ago.
==Taxonomy== Eucyon was named by Tedford and Qiu in 1996. Phyletically it stood between Canis and the South American canines that would follow it. In 2009, Tedford revised its diagnosis and described two of its species, E. skinneri and E. davisi, which was originally named Canis davisi by Merriam in 1911. Numerous species were previously described as Canis, including Eucyon ferox. Because of the high morphological similarity of E. debonisi to the species E. monticinensis, the former taxon is now regarded to be a junior synonym of the latter.