Prototocyon Temporal range:
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Carnivora |
Family: | Canidae |
Genus: | †
Prototocyon Pohle, 1928 |
Type species | |
†Prototocyon curvipalatus Bose, 1880
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Species | |
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Synonyms | |
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Prototocyon is an extinct genus of small omnivorous canid that lived during the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. [1] It is closely related to the living bat-eared fox (Otocyon).
Prototocyon was named by Pohle (1928) and was assigned to Canidae by Carroll (1988). [2] Old literature relates it to Vulpes bengalensis, but not more modern literature (e.g. McKenna and Bell. [3] [4] A 2013 study stated that the genus "is only doubtfully distinct from Otocyon" the genus of the living bat-eared fox. [5]
Prototocyon was a small canine similar to the bat-eared fox in overall morphology and likely in habits as well. It differed from the modern bat-eared fox mainly in its more primitive dentition. [6]
Fossil remains of P. curvipalatus were recovered from the early Pleistocene Upper Siwaliks horizon of the Siwalik Hills, India (Colbert 1935; Pilgrim 1932).
Fossils of P recki have been found in the Olduvai Gorge area of Tanzania. [6]