Oxetocyon

Oxetocyon Temporal range: early to late Oligocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Canidae
Subfamily:	†Borophaginae
Genus:	†Oxetocyon Green, 1954
Species:	†O. cuspidatus
Binomial name
†Oxetocyon cuspidatus Green, 1954

Oxetocyon is an early member of the subfamily Borophaginae, an extinct subgroup of the family Canidae, which includes living dogs, wolves, and foxes. Only a single species, O. cuspidatus, is known. Fossils of Oxetocyon are rare and, as a result, the genus is poorly known, and only the teeth, dentaries, and a fragmentary skull have been reported. All specimens come from rocks assigned to the Whitneyan and Arikareean NALMAs (Oligocene: 4 mya) of Nebraska and South Dakota.

The teeth of Oxetocyon indicate a somewhat omnivorous (hypocarnivorous) diet, as is found in the living Raccoon Dog, and suggest a potential relationship to the unusual borophagine Otarocyon. Oxetocyon is distinguished from Otarocyon by its own set of dental specializations for an omnivorous diet, particularly by the presence of a cleft that divides each upper molar into front and back halves.

References:

• Wang, X., R.H. Tedford, and B.E. Taylor. 1999. Phylogenetic systematics of the Borophaginae (Carnivora, Canidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 243:1-391.