Eucyon khoikhoi sp. nov. (Carnivora: Canidae) from Langebaanweg ‘ E’ Quarry (early Pliocene, South Africa): the most complete African canini from the Mio-Pliocene
Author
Valenciano, Alberto
Author
Morales, Jorge
Author
Govender, Romala
text
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
2022
2021-05-29
194
366
394
journal article
20219
10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab022
91c8d5c2-9800-4c2f-9ceb-bfd0003e2cd1
0024-4082
6360309
FFBE273B-E85D-44B9-951A-B7EE05E00E6C
GENUS
EUCYON
TEDFORD & QIU, 1996
1993
Eucyon
nov. gen.
(Tedford & Qiu,
in stampa
), Rook: 12.
1996
Eucyon
nov. gen.
Tedford & Qiu: 27.
2009
Eucyon
Tedford & Qiu
, in press, Rook: 726.
Type
species:
Canis davisi
Merriam, 1911
.
Diagnosis:
In
Tedford & Qiu (1996)
, revised by
Tedford
et al.
(2009)
and
Werdelin
et al.
(2014b)
.
Remarks:
Tedford & Qiu (1996)
recognized that with
Eucyon
they were creating a paraphyletic taxon, due to its primitive position at the base of the Tribe
Canini
. Despite this, the number of species attributed to the genus has been increasing progressively (
Morales
et al.
, 2005
;
Spassov & Rook, 2006
;
García, 2008
;
Montoya
et al.
, 2009
;
Rook, 2009
;
Werdelin
et al
., 2014b
;
Bartolini Lucenti & Rook, 2020
). Recently
Zrzavý
et al
. (2018)
performed a phylogenetic analysis of living and extinct
Caninae
using morphological, developmental, ecological, behavioural and molecular characters. Only three
Eucyon
species
were included in their analysis:
E. davisi
,
type
species of the genus, and two Asian species:
E. zhoui
from the Lower Pliocene and
E. marinae
from the Upper Pliocene.
Eucyon davisi
appears as the basal species of the entire
Canini
clade, while
E. zhoui
and
E. marinae
nest in a paraphyletic basal clade to the subtribe
Canina
. These same authors point out the paraphyletic character of the genus
Canis
, whose species are grouped into at least two different and distant clades.