Caninae

Canines Temporal range: early Miocene - Recent
Eucyon davisi fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Caniformia
Family:	Canidae
Subfamily:	Caninae G. Fischer de Waldheim, 1817
Genera[1][2][3][4]
Atelocynus Canis Cerdocyon Chrysocyon Cuon †Cynotherium †Dusicyon †Eucyon †Leptocyon Lycalopex Lycaon †Nurocyon Nyctereutes Otocyon †Protocyon †Prototocyon Speothos †Theriodictis Urocyon Vulpes †Xenocyon

The Caninae are a subfamily of the family Canidae and include all living canids and their most recent fossil relatives.^[5] The extinct and more basal canids are placed in the Canidae subfamilies Hesperocyoninae and Borophaginae. Their fossils have been found in Lower Oligocene North America, and they did not spread to Asia until the end of the Miocene.^[6][7][8][9] Many extinct species of Caninae were endemic to North America, living from 34 million to 11,000 years ago.^[10]

Taxonomy

"Derived characteristics that distinguish the Caninae from other canids include small, simple, well-spaced premolars, a humerus without an entepicondylar foramen, and a metatarsal 1 which is reduced to a proximal rudiment."^[11]

Based on genetic assumptions, the present-day, more-basal canids include:^[12]

• Genus Urocyon
  • Gray fox, Urocyon cinereoargenteus
  • Island fox, Urocyon littoralis)
• Genus Otocyon (probably a vulpine close to Urocyon)
  • Bat-eared fox, Otocyon megalotis
• Genus Nyctereutes
  • Raccoon dog, N. procyonoides

References

1. McKenna, M. C; S. K. Bell (1997). Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-11012-X.
2. Lyras G.A., Van der Geer A.E., Dermitzakis M., De Vos J. (2006) Cynotherium sardous, an insular canid (Mammalia: Carnivora) from the Pleistocene of Sardinia (Italy), and its origin. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology: Vol. 26, No. 3 pp. 735–745
3. Wozencraft, W.C. (2005). "Order Carnivora". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 532–628. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
4. Sotnikova, M. (2006). "A new canid Nurocyon chonokhariensis gen. et sp. nov.(Canini, Canidae, Mammalia) from the Pliocene of Mongolia" (PDF). Courier-Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. 256: 11. Retrieved 2008-05-04.
5. Tedford, Richard; Xiaoming Wang; Beryl E. Taylor (2009). "Phylogenetic systematics of the North American fossil Caninae (Carnivora: Canidae)". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 325: 1–218. doi:10.1206/574.1.
6. Rook L (1993) I cani dell’Eurasia dal Miocene superiore al Pleistocene medio. PhD Dissertation, Modena-Bologna-Firenze-Roma “La Sapienza” Universities
7. Rook L (2009) The wide ranging genus Eucyon Tedford & Qiu, 1996 (Mammalia, Carnivora, Canidae) in Mio-Pliocene of the Old World. Geodiversitas 31: 723–743
8. Wang, Xiaoming; Tedford, Richard H.; Dogs: Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
9. Re-Defining Canis etruscus (Canidae, Mammalia): A New Look into the Evolutionary History of Early Pleistocene Dogs Resulting from the Outstanding Fossil Record from Pantalla (Italy) Cherin, Marco ; Bertè, Davide ; Rook, Lorenzo ; Sardella, Raffaele, Journal of Mammalian Evolution, 2014, Vol.21(1), pp.95-110
10. Paleobiology Database: Caninae Basic info.
11. In Evolution of Tertiary mammals of North America, ed. C. M. Janis, K. M. Scott, and L. L. Jacobs. New York: Cambridge University Press 1998. Chapter 7, Canidae by Kathleen Munthe, p124-143
12. Macdonald, David W.; Sillero-Zubir, Claudio, The Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids, Oxford University Press, retrieved February 16, 2016

Additional reading

• Xiaoming Wang, Richard H. Tedford, Mauricio Antón, Dogs: Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History, New York : Columbia University Press, 2008; ISBN 978-0-231-13528-3