Simocyon ("short-snouted dog") is a genus of extinct
carnivoran mammal in the family
Ailuridae. Simocyon, which was about the size of a
mountain lion, lived in the late
Miocene and early
Pliocene epochs, and has been found in Europe, Asia, and rarely, North America[1] and Africa.[2]
Classification
The relationship of Simocyon to other carnivores has been controversial, but studies of the structure of its ear, teeth, and ankle now indicate that its closest living relative is the
red panda, Ailurus,[3][1] although it is different enough to be classified in a separate subfamily (Simocyoninae) along with related genera Alopecocyon and Actiocyon. While the red panda is primarily herbivorous, the teeth and skull of Simocyon indicate that it was carnivorous, and it may have engaged in some bone-crushing, like living
hyenas.[1] The skeleton of Simocyon indicates that, like the red panda, it could climb trees, although it probably also spent considerable time on the ground.[4]Simocyon and Ailurus both have a radial
sesamoid, an unusual bone in the wrist that acts as a false thumb.[5] Its competitors during its time period were
ailuropodine and
tremarctine bears,
nimravid false cats, and early
canids and
felids.
^Wang, Xiaoming (1997). "New cranial material of Simocyon from China, and its implications for phylogenetic relationship to the red panda(Ailurus)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 17 (1): 184–198.
Bibcode:
1997JVPal..17..184W.
doi:
10.1080/02724634.1997.10010963.
Fabre, Anne-Claire; Salesa, Manuel J.; Cornette, Raphael; Antón, Mauricio; Morales, Jorge; Peigné, Stéphane (2015). "Quantitative inferences on the locomotor behaviour of extinct species applied to Simocyon batalleri (Ailuridae, Late Miocene, Spain)". The Science of Nature. 102 (5–6): 30.
Bibcode:
2015SciNa.102...30F.
doi:
10.1007/s00114-015-1280-9.
PMID25968493.
S2CID253632525.
Tedrow, A. R.; Baskin, J. A.; Robinson, S. F.; Gillette, D. D. (1999). "An additional occurrence of Simocyon (Mammalia, Carnivora, Procyonidae) in North America". Vertebrate Paleontology in Utah: 487–493.
Spassov, Nikolai; Geraads, Denis (2011). "A skull of Simocyon primigenius (Roth & Wagner, 1854) (Carnivora, Ailuridae) from the late Miocene of Karaslari (Republic of Macedonia), with remarks on the systematics and evolution of the genus". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen. 262 (2): 151–161.
doi:
10.1127/0077-7749/2011/0188.
Kullmer, Ottmar; Morlo, Michael; Sommer, Jens; Lutz, Herbert; Engel, Thomas; Forman, Markus; Holzförster, Frank (2008). "The second specimen of Simocyon diaphorus(Kaup, 1832) (Mammalia, Carnivora, Ailuridae) from the type–locality Eppelsheim (Early late Miocene, Germany)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 28 (3): 928.
doi:
10.1671/0272-4634(2008)28[928:TSSOSD]2.0.CO;2.
ISSN0272-4634.
S2CID129956051.