Enhydrocyon

Enhydrocyon is an extinct genus of bone crushing canid which inhabited North America during the Oligocene and Early Miocene, 30.8—20.4 Ma, existing for approximately 11 million years. [1]

Enhydrocyon
Temporal range:
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Subfamily: †Hesperocyoninae
Genus: †Enhydrocyon
Cope, 1879
Type species
†Enhydrocyon stenocephalus
Species

See text

Range of Enhydrocyon fossil evidence

Enhydrocyon's dentition suggests this animal was a hypercarnivore or mesocarnivore.[2] Species of Enhydrocyon were relatively large, powerfully built carnivores with a short snout and deep jaws reminiscent of a jaguar.[3] These features give the skull a shape resembling that of the extant sea otter (Enhydra), prompting the scientific name.[4] With an estimated weight of about 10 kilograms (22 lb), this was the earliest genus of canid adapted to be specialized predators.[4]

Species
  • †Enhydrocyon basilatus Cope 1879
  • †E. crassidens Matthew 1907
  • †E. pahinsintewakpa Macdonald 1963
  • †E. sectorius Cope 1883
  • †E. stenocephalus Cope 1879

References
  1. Enhydrocyon at fossilworks
  2. R. M. Nowak. 1991. Walker's Mammals of the World. Maryland, Johns Hopkins University Press (edited volume) II
  3. David Macdonald. The Velvet Claw: A Natural History of the Carnivores. BBC Books: London; 1992. p83.
  4. Wang, Xiaoming; Tedford, Richard H. (2008). Dogs, Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History. Columbia. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-231-13528-3.
  • Wang, X. (1994). "Phylogenetic systematics of the Hesperocyoninae (Carnivora, Canidae)". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 221: 1–207. hdl:2246/829.


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