Topic
Eucyon
About: Eucyon is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 15 publications have been published within this topic receiving 336 citations.
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TL;DR: An analysis of the taxonomy and distribution of the Mio-Pliocene and Pleistocene Eucyon-like and Canis-like canids of the tribe Canini of Eurasia was performed, with a description of several fossils from the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene of Asia.
88 citations
01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: In this paper, a large number of carnivores have been collected from the Late Miocene and early Pliocene sediments of the Tugen Hills (Lukeino and Mabaget Fms), Baringo District, Kenya.
Abstract: species of carnivores have been collected from the Late Miocene and early Pliocene sediments of the eastern foothills of the Tugen Hills (Lukeino and Mabaget Fms), Baringo District, Kenya. The sample comprises three species of felids, three viverrids, three herpestids, three hyaenids, a canid, an ursid and four mustelids. Of these three (Civettictis howelli nov.sp, Agriotherium aecuatorialis nov. sp. and Eucyon intrepidus nov. sp) are new species. The Langebaanweg (South Africa) otter is classed as Enhydriodon hendeyi nov. sp. Some of the Tugen Hills carnivore species were extremely widespread, not only within Africa, but also in Eurasia, and in some cases, North America. There was a major faunal change between Lothagam (7.4-6.5 Ma) and Lukeino (6.1-5.7 Ma) which greatly affected the carnivores. A faunal change of comparable magnitude modified the Late Miocene (MN 13) carnivore faunas of the Mediterranean region, some of the taxa involved in the turnover being the same as those occurring in Kenya.
82 citations
TL;DR: The presence of Vulpes and of the genus Eucyon in slightly younger African locality, as well as in southwestern Europe in the late Miocene, may indicate that canids migrated in Europe from Africa through a trans-Mediterranean route.
Abstract: We report on the oldest fox (Canidae) ever found in Africa. It is dated to 7 Ma based on the degree of evolution of the whole fauna. It belongs to a new species. Its overall size and some morphological characteristics distinguish the Chadian specimen from all the other foxes. The presence of Vulpes and of the genus Eucyon in slightly younger African locality, as well as in southwestern Europe in the late Miocene, may indicate that canids migrated in Europe from Africa through a trans-Mediterranean route.
42 citations
TL;DR: Both skull size and shape are excellent predictors of feeding habits in Canini and provide information about fossil taxonomic affinities, and discriminant function analysis successfully classify extant Canini in dietary groups with 89% of accuracy.
Abstract: The canids belong to one of the most prominent families of mammalian carnivores. Feeding adaptations of extant species is well documented by field observations; however, we are still missing palaeoecological insights for many enigmatic fossil specimens. We employ geometric morphometrics to quantify skull size and shape in extant and fossil members of the Canini tribe, inclusive of jackals and wolf-like taxa. Skull data are tested to identify correlates of dietary adaptations in extant species for predicting adaptations in fossils. Main vectors of shape variation correlate with the relative skull-palatal length, the position of the upper carnassial tooth and the anterior tip of the secondary palate. Allometry occurs in the palatal shape but size explains only a small fraction (about 4%) of shape variance. Although we quantified only palatal and tooth shape for the inclusion of fragmentary fossils, discriminant function analysis successfully classify extant Canini in dietary groups (small, medium and large prey specialist) with 89% of accuracy. The discriminant functions provide insights into many enigmatic specimens such as Eucyon adoxus (=small prey), fossil jackal-like from Koobi Fora formation (=small prey) and the Plio-Pleistocene Old World canid guild (Canis etruscus, C. arnensis and Lycaon falconeri). Clearly, both skull size and shape are excellent predictors of feeding habits in Canini thus also provide information about fossil taxonomic affinities.
37 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the genus Eucyon has been found in the fossil record of North America in the late Miocene and Pliocene of Eurasia and Africa (see Section 2.1).
Abstract: The occurrence of the Tribe Canini (subfamily Caninae) in the Hemphillian (Mio-Pliocene) of North America has been long known without finding contemporary relatives in the Old World. Although scanty and sometimes problematic, the remains of rare dogs in the Old World fossil record are important because they attest to the occurrence of a more diverse taxonomy within the tribe Canini in the late Miocene and Pliocene of Eurasia and Africa. The occurrence of North American Eucyon from eastern Asia to western Europe has been securely documented and finally in the very recent years, multiple new findings in eastern Africa of this same genus attest undoubtedly to its occurrence in the fossil record of this continent. The late Miocene expansion of the genus Eucyon from America to Eurasia and Africa is a synchronous event with global significance for the Old World continental carnivore guild composition and turnover. Although the Eucyon documentation remains quite fragmentary, the general pattern of the dispersal westwards through the Holarctic from North America to the Old World (Asia, Europe, and Africa) is defined. The important fossil documentation at some sites across these continents allowed the recognition of different Eucyon species, although deeper analyses are still needed to understand the full pattern of Eucyon relationships and its evolutionary history across North America and the Old World.
34 citations