Raccoon dog
Asian canids with two living species and a deep fossil record.
Last updated
Raccoon dogs are Asian canids of the genus Nyctereutes, with two living species: the common raccoon dog and the Japanese raccoon dog.[1] The genus is an opportunistic carnivore that also eats plants.[2] Short snouts, rounded skulls, and a particular M1-to-M2 molar proportion are typical features of these animals.[2]
Scientific classification
Named by Temminck, 1838
Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Nyctereutes (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Quick Facts
- Scientific name
- Nyctereutes
- Earliest fossil record
- 5.5 million years ago
- Extant species
- 2
- Region
- Asia (northern China, Japan, Russia, Hokkaido)
- Diet
- Opportunistic carnivore (small mammals, fish, birds, insects, occasional plants)
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
Environmental and climatic changes, such as forest expansion and temperature fluctuations, influenced Nyctereutes evolution.[3] Fossil evidence indicates that Nyctereutes first appeared in northern China around 5.5 million years ago.[3] Only two species from this genus survived past the Pleistocene epoch.[3] What raccoon dogs eat depends heavily on their surroundings.[2]
What the cited sources add
A 2015 study by Kim in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society examined skull morphology variation and its biogeographical implications.[2] A 2024 study by Mallapaty in Nature identified captive common raccoon dogs as a leading possibility for SARS-CoV-2 transmission to humans.[4] Farjand’s 2021 paper in Palaeoworld places the earliest Nyctereutes fossils at 5.5 million years ago in northern China.[3]
References
- Wikipedia, "Nyctereutes" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Nyctereutes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Farjand, "The evolution of Nyctereutes (Carnivora: Canidae) in the Nihewan Basin, Hebei, northern China", Palaeoworld, June 2021, p. 373–381; Kim, "Evolutionary and Biogeographical implications of variation in skull morphology of raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides, Mammalia: Carnivora)", Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, p. 856–872; Hong, "Phylogenetic relationships between different raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) populations based on four nuclear and Y genes", Genes & Genomics, September 2020, p. 1075–1085 (origi en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Nyctereutes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Farjand, "The evolution of Nyctereutes (Carnivora: Canidae) in the Nihewan Basin, Hebei, northern China", Palaeoworld, June 2021, p. 373–381; Hong, "Phylogenetic relationships between different raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) populations based on four nuclear and Y genes", Genes & Genomics, September 2020, p. 1075–1085 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Nyctereutes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Mallapaty, "COVID pandemic started in Wuhan market animals after all, suggests latest study", Nature, 2024-09-20, p. 14–15 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Nyctereutes (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in Canids And Hyaenids
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Nyctereutes (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the , each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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