Microtomarctus Temporal range:
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Replica of lower jaw at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Carnivora |
Family: | Canidae |
Subfamily: | † Borophaginae |
Tribe: | † Borophagini |
Genus: | †
Microtomarctus Wang et al., 1999 |
Species: | †M. confertus
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Binomial name | |
†Microtomarctus confertus Matthew, 1918
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Microtomarctus is an extinct monospecific genus of the Borophaginae subfamily of canids native to North America. It lived during the Early to Middle Miocene, [1] and existed for approximately 7 million years. Fossil specimens have been found in Nebraska, coastal southeast Texas, California, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado. It was an intermediate-size canid, and more predaceous than earlier borophagines. [2]
Like some other borophagines it had powerful, bone-crushing jaws and teeth.[ citation needed]