Microtomarctus
Microtomarctus is an extinct monospecific genus of the Borophaginae subfamily of canids native to North America. It lived during the Early to Middle Miocene,[1] and existed for approximately 7 million years. Fossil specimens have been found in Nebraska, coastal southeast Texas, California, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado. It was an intermediate-size canid, and more predaceous than earlier borophagines.[2]
| Microtomarctus Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Replica of lower jaw at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Canidae |
| Subfamily: | †Borophaginae |
| Tribe: | †Borophagini |
| Genus: | †Microtomarctus Wang et al., 1999 |
| Species: | †M. confertus |
| Binomial name | |
| †Microtomarctus confertus Matthew, 1918 | |
Like some other borophagines it had powerful, bone-crushing jaws and teeth.
References
- PaleoBiology Database: Microtomarctus Taxonomy, Species
- Wang, Xiaoming; Tedford, Richard H. (2008). Dogs, Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History. Columbia. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-231-13528-3.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.