Catagonus

Catagonus is a genus of peccaries that contains the living Chacoan peccary and several extinct species. The genus has always been restricted to South America.

Catagonus
Temporal range: Pliocene – Recent
Chacoan peccary (Catagonus wagneri)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Tayassuidae
Genus: Catagonus
Ameghino, 1904[1]
Species
Synonyms
  • Brasiliochoerus
  • Parachoerus

Taxonomy

Catagonus is notable in that the type species, C. metropolitanus, is extinct; the living Chacoan peccary was first described in 1930 from subfossil remains, and only found alive by scientists in 1972 (an example of a Lazarus taxon).[2]

A 2017 study on the phylogenetic systematics of Tayassuidae species suggests that Catagonus should only contain C. metropolitanus. The extinct narrow-headed peccary (C. stenocephalus) should be moved into Brasiliochoerus, while the Chacoan peccary, C. bonaerensis and C. carlesi should be placed in Parachoerus.[3] If this is accepted, then Catagonus becomes an extinct genus once more.

References
  1. "Catagonus". Fossilworks.
  2. Wetzel, Ralph M. (1975). "Catagonus, an "Extinct" Peccary, Alive in Paraguay". Science. 189 (4200): 379–381. doi:10.1126/science.189.4200.379.
  3. Parisi-Dutra, R. (2017). "Phylogenetic Systematics of Peccaries (Tayassuidae: Artiodactyla) and a Classification of South American Tayassuids". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 24: 345–358.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.