Amphicyonidae

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Amphicyonidae
Amphicyon ingens, in the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Amphicyon ingens , in the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Temporal occurrence
middle Eocene to Upper Miocene
45 to 8 million years
Locations
Systematics
Mammals (mammalia)
Higher mammals (Eutheria)
Laurasiatheria
Predators (Carnivora)
Canine (Caniformia)
Amphicyonidae
Scientific name
Amphicyonidae
Trouessart , 1885

The Amphicyonidae are an extinct family of canine predators. They originated in the Eocene about 45 million years ago and survived until the late Miocene . The animals resembled a mixture of bears and large dogs, from which the name bear dogs is derived. In the past one was unsure whether they belonged to the dogs or the bears , today they are mostly seen as a separate family.

Most of the amphicyonids were sturdy animals with relatively short legs. But some like Cynelos were also slimmer. Amphicyonids were among the first larger representatives of the carnivores . An early genus from Eocene Europe was Simamphicyon . During the Miocene , they spawned a variety of forms, from omnivorous generalists to highly specialized carnivores. The best known genus was amphicyon , the males of which could reach a body weight of up to 300 kg. The strong fangs of this genus were probably even capable of biting large bones. This assumption is also supported by large muscle attachment points on the skull.

The Amphicyonidae first appeared in the Eocene of North America about 45 million years ago. In the late Eocene, about 35 million years ago, they had spread to Europe. They reached Asia and Africa in the early Miocene about 23 million years ago. The last members of the family died out about 8 million years ago in the late Miocene.

Systematics

McKenna et al. distinguished two subfamilies with a total of 34 genera:

Web links

Commons : Amphicyonidae  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

literature

  • Jordi Augusti, Mauricio Antón: Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids. 65 Million Years of Mammalian Evolution in Europe. Columbia University Press, New York NY et al. 2002, ISBN 0-231-11640-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Xiaoming Wang, Richard H. Tedford, Mauricio Antón: Dogs, their fossil relative & evolutionary history. Columbia University Press, New York, 2008. ISBN 978-0-231-13528-3 (pp. 10-11).
  2. ↑ Malcolm C. McKenna, Susan K. Bell: Classification of Mammals: Above the Species Level . Columbia University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-231-52853-5 ( google.de [accessed June 28, 2016]).