The wide ranging genus Eucyon Tedford & Qiu, 1996 (Mammalia, Carnivora, Canidae, Canini) in the Mio-Pliocene of the Old World
Author
Rook, Lorenzo
Università di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, via G. La Pira, I- 50121 Firenze (Italy) lorenzo. rook @ unifi. it
rook@unifi.it
text
Geodiversitas
2009
31
4
723
741
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.5381420
1638-9395
5381420
?
Eucyon wokari
García, 2008
TYPE
LOCALITY
. — Aramis (
Ethiopia
).
AGE. — Early Pliocene.
The remains from Aramis represent the most recently described species of the genus, although the occurrence of an upper M
3 in
the maxilla (
García 2008: 586
;
Fig. 3
) cast doubts even on the tribe attribution of this taxon. Comparable in size with the late Miocene African species
E. intrepidus
, the detail morphology of?
Eucyon wokari
lower molars is peculiar, especially for the talonid structure in the lower carnassial. The latter is described as highly derived being hypoconid and entoconid “connected by a tiny cristid” (
García 2008: 588
). This character (see above, the discussion on
Eucyon
distinctive features), is usually absent in all the
Eucyon
species
, but present in all the other
Canini
(
Tedford & Qiu 1996
), and may occur also in living
Vulpini
populations (
Tedford
et al.
1995
).
According to
García (2008)
?
Eucyon wokari
might represent a new eastern African chronospecies of this canid lineage that inhabited eastern Africa during the Pliocene and, as it is the case of the very derived
E. zhoui
from
China
(
Tedford & Qiu 1996
),?
Eucyon wokari
, could be eventually more closely related to the
Canis
-group than to
Eucyon
.