Carnivorans Codexery

Canidae

A diverse family of dog-like carnivorans found worldwide.

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Canidae is a biological family of dog-like carnivorans that includes domestic dogs, wolves, foxes, and jackals.[1][2] Across tropical and temperate regions globally, modern canids are found in forests, tundra, savannas, and deserts.[3]

Scientific classification

  1. KingdomAnimalia
  2. PhylumChordata
  3. InfraclassPlacentalia
  4. OrderCarnivora
  5. FamilyCanidae

Named by Fischer de Waldheim, 1817

Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Canidae (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Key facts and history

Around 50 million years ago, the Carnivora split into dog-like and cat-like divisions.[4] By 40 million years ago, the first identifiable canid, Prohesperocyon wilsoni, had arisen in what is now southwestern Texas.[5] Its features include the loss of the upper third molar and an enlarged bony bulla over the middle ear.[5] Prohesperocyon likely had slightly elongated limbs and parallel, closely touching toes.[5]

North America was the original home of canids, appearing there in the Late Eocene, with their arrival in Eurasia not occurring until the Late Miocene.[6][7] The Beringian land bridge, approximately 8 million years ago, provided a route for Eucyon species to move from North America into Asia.[8]

What the cited sources add

Wang's 2008 account states that early canids were still evolving in a forested environment in western North America between 40 and 34 million years ago.[5] The Animal Diversity Web notes that fossil records of the Canidae date back to the Oligocene and Miocene, making them one of the oldest extant carnivore groups.[9] The Animal Diversity Web adds that scent glands on the dorsal surface of the tail near the base are important in social behavior.[9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Canidae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Canidae. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Company. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Canidae (accessed: (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Canidae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Canid - English meaning", Cambridge Dictionary, 2026-02-04; "Definition of CANID", www.merriam-webster.com; Wang Tedford 2008, p. 181; Miklosi, "Dog Behaviour, Evolution, and Cognition", Oxford University Press, 2015, p. 103–107; Wang Tedford 2008, p. 181 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Canidae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wayne, Robert K., "Molecular evolution of the dog family" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Canidae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wang, "How Dogs Came to Run the World", 2008 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wang, "How Dogs Came to Run the World", 2008. facts only, no text reused. naturalhistorymag.com
  6. Wikipedia, "Canidae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Flynn, "Phylogeny of the Carnivora: Basal Relationships Among the Carnivoramorphans, and Assessment of the Position of 'Miacoidea' Relative to Carnivora", Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 2005, p. 1–28 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Canidae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tedford, "Phylogenetic systematics of the North American fossil Caninae (Carnivora: Canidae)", Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 2009, p. 1–218 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Canidae" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The evolution of South American endemic canids: a history of rapid diversification and morphological parallelism", Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2010, p. 311–322 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. "Canidae: Coyotes, dogs, foxes, jackals, and wolves", Animal Diversity Web. facts only, no text reused. animaldiversity.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Canidae (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.

Related entries

Named in this entry

Coyote

More in Carnivorans

CaninaeCanisCarnivoraCoatiAfrican civetAfrican palm civetAfrican wolfAmerican badgerAmerican minkArctic foxAsiatic linsangBanded palm civet

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.

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