Cynodesmus
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Cynodesmus is an extinct genus of omnivorous canine that lived in North America during the Oligocene. It was one of the first canids to appear dog-like, roughly the size of a modern coyote but with a shorter skull, heavier tail, and longer rump. Unlike modern dogs, it had five toes on each foot with partially retractable claws and likely ambushed prey rather than running it down.
Scientific classification
Named by Scott, 1893
Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Cynodesmus (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Quick Facts
- Type species
- †Cynodesmus thooides
- Subdivision
- †C. martini; †C. thooides
Facts from the source article.
Taxonomy
Cynodesmus once included many Oligocene and Miocene canid species with hypercarnivorous dentitions. A revision by Wang (1994) showed that most of those species are unrelated to the type species C. thooides and were reassigned to genera such as Carpocyon, Desmocyon, Leptocyon, Metatomarctus, Osbornodon, Otarocyon, Paracynarctus, Paratomarctus, and Phlaocyon. Only Osbornodon belongs in the same subfamily Hesperocyoninae; the others are placed in Borophaginae and Caninae.
With those removed, Cynodesmus now contains only C. thooides and the closely related C. martini. Earlier broader conceptions considered Cynodesmus ancestral to Tomarctus, from which wolves, dogs, foxes, and fennecs developed. Cynodesmus is also an example of convergent evolution with Borophagus, both having evolved from it.
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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: Cynodesmus (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the Codexery glossary, each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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