Journal articles: 'Carnivora, Fossil'

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Flynn, John J. "Rates of evolution in the Carnivora (Mammalia): the importance of phylogeny and fossils." Paleontological Society Special Publications 6 (1992): 100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s2475262200006602.

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Calculations of “rates of evolution” have been applied to a variety of indicators of change within populations, species, or higher taxa. This has led to confusion about taxonomic and temporal scaling, particularly when rates are calculated for supposedly “equivalent” taxonomic ranks, or “higher-level” taxa that are not monophyletic groups. All calculations of rates of evolutionary change require accurate temporal calibration. Even in studies of molecular evolution that assume a “molecular clock”, the rate at which any clock ticks must be calibrated empirically by fossil data on the age of divergence of some taxa.Molecular clock rates for all Mammalia generally have been calculated from the primate fossil record and phylogeny. However, rates of molecular evolution have been shown to vary both within and among different clades. Given a preference for a more rigorous system in which molecular divergence is not assumed to occur at a constant rate, the time of divergence should be determined directly for all clades in studies of molecular “rates of evolution”.The mammalian order Carnivora is a monophyletic group widely cited in studies of evolutionary tempo, and mode. However, few of those rate studies have considered explicitly the roles of fossil taxa and rigorously tested phylogenies. For example, phylogenetic placement of early Cenozoic Carnivora (generally placed in the paraphyletic “stem-group” “Miacoidea”), relative to the two major clades of living Carnivora (Caniformia and Feliformia), profoundly influences estimates of the age of cladogenetic divergence for clades of living carnivorans. If all the taxa placed within the “Miacoidea” lie outside a restricted clade of Carnivora (defined as the most recent common ancestor of extant Carnivora, and all of its descendants), then the oldest Carnivora (“neocarnivorans”) are late Eocene (about 35–40 Ma). However, if miacid “miacoids” are caniforms and viverravid “miacoids” are feliforms, then the Caniformia/Feliformia (=Carnivora) clade is at least as old as the oldest “miacoid” (middle Paleocene, or >60 Ma). The implications for calculations of rates of evolution within Carnivora are obvious. Similarly, many fossil Carnivora taxa have been assigned to living families, although the phylogenetic relationships of both fossil and living taxa within most of these families has been poorly understood. This presentation will consider: 1) minimum estimates of clade divergence time, based on current hypotheses of carnivoran phylogeny (emphasizing placement of fossil taxa) and oldest occurrence of fossils within a clade or its sister group- traditional taxonomies both underestimate (e.g. Caniformia/Feliformia) and overestimate (e.g. some living families, such as Viverridae) clade divergence times; and 2) calculation of rates of evolution within Carnivora, focusing on taxonomic diversification and molecular divergence, comparison of rates calculated using traditional taxonomies and artificial “higher-taxa” categories versus those using phylogenetic clades (“unranked”), and the effects of fossil taxa.

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Liow, Lee Hsiang, and John A. Finarelli. "A dynamic global equilibrium in carnivoran diversification over 20 million years." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281, no. 1778 (March 7, 2014): 20132312. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2312.

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The ecological and evolutionary processes leading to present-day biological diversity can be inferred by reconstructing the phylogeny of living organisms, and then modelling potential processes that could have produced this genealogy. A more direct approach is to estimate past processes from the fossil record. The Carnivora (Mammalia) has both substantial extant species richness and a rich fossil record. We compiled species-level data for over 10 000 fossil occurrences of nearly 1400 carnivoran species. Using this compilation, we estimated extinction, speciation and net diversification for carnivorans through the Neogene (22–2 Ma), while simultaneously modelling sampling probability. Our analyses show that caniforms (dogs, bears and relatives) have higher speciation and extinction rates than feliforms (cats, hyenas and relatives), but lower rates of net diversification. We also find that despite continual species turnover, net carnivoran diversification through the Neogene is surprisingly stable, suggesting a saturated adaptive zone, despite restructuring of the physical environment. This result is strikingly different from analyses of carnivoran diversification estimated from extant species alone. Two intervals show elevated diversification rates (13–12 Ma and 4–3 Ma), although the precise causal factors behind the two peaks in carnivoran diversification remain open questions.

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Goswami, Anjali, Nick Milne, and Stephen Wroe. "Biting through constraints: cranial morphology, disparity and convergence across living and fossil carnivorous mammals." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 278, no. 1713 (November 24, 2010): 1831–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.2031.

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Carnivory has evolved independently several times in eutherian (including placental) and metatherian (including marsupial) mammals. We used geometric morphometrics to assess convergences associated with the evolution of carnivory across a broad suite of mammals, including the eutherian clades Carnivora and Creodonta and the metatherian clades Thylacoleonidae, Dasyuromorphia, Didelphidae and Borhyaenoidea. We further quantified cranial disparity across eutherians and metatherians to test the hypothesis that the marsupial mode of reproduction has constrained their morphological evolution. This study, to our knowledge the first to extensively sample pre-Pleistocene taxa, analysed 30 three-dimensional landmarks, focused mainly on the facial region, which were digitized on 130 specimens, including 36 fossil taxa. Data were analysed with principal components (PC) analysis, and three measures of disparity were compared between eutherians and metatherians. PC1 showed a shift from short to long faces and seemed to represent diet and ecology. PC2 was dominated by the unique features of sabre-toothed forms: dramatic expansion of the maxilla at the expense of the frontal bones. PC3, in combination with PC1, distinguished metatherians and eutherians. Metatherians, despite common comparisons with felids, were more similar to caniforms, which was unexpected for taxa such as the sabre-toothed marsupial Thylacosmilus . Contrary to previous studies, metatherian carnivores consistently exhibited disparity which exceeded that of the much more speciose eutherian carnivore radiations, refuting the hypothesis that developmental constraints have limited the morphological evolution of the marsupial cranium.

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Lyras, George A., Aggeliki Giannakopoulou, Miranda Kouvari, and Georgios C. Papadopoulos. "Evolution of Gyrification in Carnivores." Brain, Behavior and Evolution 88, no. 3-4 (2016): 187–203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000453104.

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The order Carnivora is a large and highly diverse mammalian group with a long and well-documented evolutionary history. Nevertheless, our knowledge on the degree of cortical folding (or degree of gyrification) is limited to just a few species. Here we investigate the degree of cortical folding in 64 contemporary and 37 fossil carnivore species. We do so by measuring the length of gyri impressions on endocranial casts. We use this approach because we have found that there is a very good correlation between the degree of cortical folding and the relative length of the gyri that are exposed on the outer surface of the hemispheres. Our results indicate that aquatic and semiaquatic carnivores have higher degrees of cortical folding than terrestrial carnivores. The degree of cortical folding varies among modern families, with viverrids having the lowest values. Furthermore, the scaling of cortical folding with brain size follows different patterns across specific carnivore families. Forty million years ago, the first carnivores had a relatively small cortex and limited cortical folding. Both the size of the cortex and the degree of cortical folding increased independently in each family during evolution.

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de Bonis, Louis, Camille Grohé, Yaowalak Chaimanee, Jean-Jacques Jaeger, Chotima Yamee, and Mana Rugbumrung. "New fossil Carnivora from Thailand: transcontinental paleobiostratigraphic correlations and paleobiogeographical implications." Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen 299, no. 3 (March 31, 2021): 319–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1127/njgpa/2021/0972.

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RODRIGUES, SHIRLLEY, LEONARDO S. AVILLA, LEOPOLDO H. SOIBELZON, and CAMILA BERNARDES. "Late Pleistocene carnivores (Carnivora: Mammalia) from a cave sedimentary deposit in northern Brazil." Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 86, no. 4 (December 2014): 1641–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0001-3765201420140314.

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The Brazilian Quaternary terrestrial Carnivora are represented by the following families: Canidae, Felidae, Ursidae, Procyonidae Mephitidae and Mustelidae. Their recent evolutionary history in South America is associated with the uplift of the Panamanian Isthmus, and which enabled the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI). Here we present new fossil records of Carnivora found in a cave in Aurora do Tocantins, Tocantins, northern Brazil. A stratigraphical controlled collection in the sedimentary deposit of the studied cave revealed a fossiliferous level where the following Carnivora taxa were present: Panthera onca, Leopardus sp., Galictis cuja, Procyon cancrivorus, Nasua nasua and Arctotherium wingei. Dating by Electron Spinning Resonance indicates that this assemblage was deposited during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), at least, 22.000 YBP. The weasel, G. cuja, is currently reported much further south than the record presented here. This may suggest that the environment around the cave was relatively drier during the LGM, with more open vegetation, and more moderate temperatures than the current Brazilian Cerrado.

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Tseng, Z. Jack, Adolfo Pacheco-Castro, Oscar Carranza-Castañeda, José Jorge Aranda-Gómez, Xiaoming Wang, and Hilda Troncoso. "Discovery of the fossil otter Enhydritherium terraenovae (Carnivora, Mammalia) in Mexico reconciles a palaeozoogeographic mystery." Biology Letters 13, no. 6 (June 2017): 20170259. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0259.

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The North American fossil otter Enhydritherium terraenovae is thought to be partially convergent in ecological niche with the living sea otter Enhydra lutris , both having low-crowned crushing teeth and a close association with marine environments. Fossil records of Enhydritherium are found in mostly marginal marine deposits in California and Florida; despite presence of very rich records of fossil terrestrial mammals in contemporaneous localities inland, no Enhydritherium fossils are hitherto known in interior North America. Here we report the first occurrence of Enhydritherium outside of Florida and California, in a land-locked terrestrial mammal fauna of the upper Miocene deposits of Juchipila Basin, Zacatecas State, Mexico. This new occurrence of Enhydritherium is at least 200 km from the modern Pacific coastline, and nearly 600 km from the Gulf of Mexico. Besides providing further evidence that Enhydritherium was not dependent on coastal marine environments as originally interpreted, this discovery leads us to propose a new east-to-west dispersal route between the Florida and California Enhydritherium populations through central Mexico. The proximity of the fossil locality to nearby populations of modern neotropical otters Lontra longicaudis suggests that trans-Mexican freshwater corridors for vertebrate species in riparian habitats may have persisted for a prolonged period of time, pre-dating the Great American Biotic Interchange.

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Soibelzon, Leopoldo H., Andrés Rinderknecht, Juliana Tarquini, and Raúl Ugalde. "First record of fossil procyonid (Mammalia, Carnivora) from Uruguay." Journal of South American Earth Sciences 92 (June 2019): 368–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsames.2019.03.024.

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Stefen, Clara. "Enamel microstructure of Recent and fossil Canidae (Carnivora: Mammalia)." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 19, no. 3 (September 14, 1999): 576–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02724634.1999.10011166.

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Hassanin, Alexandre, Géraldine Veron, Anne Ropiquet, Bettine Jansen van Vuuren, Alexis Lécu, Steven M. Goodman, Jibran Haider, and Trung Thanh Nguyen. "Evolutionary history of Carnivora (Mammalia, Laurasiatheria) inferred from mitochondrial genomes." PLOS ONE 16, no. 2 (February 16, 2021): e0240770. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240770.

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The order Carnivora, which currently includes 296 species classified into 16 families, is distributed across all continents. The phylogeny and the timing of diversification of members of the order are still a matter of debate. Here, complete mitochondrial genomes were analysed to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships and to estimate divergence times among species of Carnivora. We assembled 51 new mitogenomes from 13 families, and aligned them with available mitogenomes by selecting only those showing more than 1% of nucleotide divergence and excluding those suspected to be of low-quality or from misidentified taxa. Our final alignment included 220 taxa representing 2,442 mitogenomes. Our analyses led to a robust resolution of suprafamilial and intrafamilial relationships. We identified 21 fossil calibration points to estimate a molecular timescale for carnivorans. According to our divergence time estimates, crown carnivorans appeared during or just after the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum; all major groups of Caniformia (Cynoidea/Arctoidea; Ursidae; Musteloidea/Pinnipedia) diverged from each other during the Eocene, while all major groups of Feliformia (Nandiniidae; Feloidea; Viverroidea) diversified more recently during the Oligocene, with a basal divergence of Nandinia at the Eocene/Oligocene transition; intrafamilial divergences occurred during the Miocene, except for the Procyonidae, as Potos separated from other genera during the Oligocene.

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Rodrigues, Shirlley, Leonardo Avilla, and Sergio Alex Kugland De Azevedo. "Diversity and paleoenviromental significance of Brazilian fossil Galictis (Carnivora: Mustelidae)." Historical Biology 28, no. 7 (July 6, 2015): 907–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2015.1055559.

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Tedford, Richard H., Xiaoming Wang, and Beryl E. Taylor. "Phylogenetic Systematics of the North American Fossil Caninae (Carnivora: Canidae)." Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 325 (September 3, 2009): 1–218. http://dx.doi.org/10.1206/574.1.

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Baryshnikov, G. F. "Late Pleistocene Felidae remains (Mammalia, Carnivora) from Geographical Society Cave in the Russian Far East." Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS 320, no. 1 (June 24, 2016): 84–120. http://dx.doi.org/10.31610/trudyzin/2016.320.1.84.

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Fossil remains of felids from Geographical Society Cave and neighboring localities (Tigrovaya Cave, Malaya Pensau Cave, and Letuchiya Mysh Cave) in the Russian Far East are found to belong to four species: Panthera tigris, P. spelaea, P. pardus, and Lynx lynx. In Geographical Society Cave, the felid fossils are confined to deposits of the warm stage of the Late Pleistocene (MIS3). The simultaneous presence of Panthera tigris and P. spelaea seems to be unusual, the tiger remains being numerous whereas those of the cave lion are scant. There are differences between the Late Pleistocene tiger and the recent tiger in dental characters. P. tigris, most probably, migrated twice to Russian Far East from southern regions: in interstadial MIS3 and, subsequently, in the Holocene.

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Meloro, Carlo, Sarah Elton, Julien Louys, Laura C. Bishop, and Peter Ditchfield. "Cats in the forest: predicting habitat adaptations from humerus morphometry in extant and fossil Felidae (Carnivora)." Paleobiology 39, no. 3 (2013): 323–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1666/12001.

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Mammalian carnivores are rarely incorporated in paleoenvironmental reconstructions, largely because of their rarity within the fossil record. However, multivariate statistical modeling can be successfully used to quantify specific anatomical features as environmental predictors. Here we explore morphological variability of the humerus in a closely related group of predators (Felidae) to investigate the relationship between morphometric descriptors and habitat categories. We analyze linear measurements of the humerus in three different morphometric combinations (log-transformed, size-free, and ratio), and explore four distinct ways of categorizing habitat adaptations. Open, Mixed, and Closed categories are defined according to criteria based on traditional descriptions of species, distributions, and biome occupancy. Extensive exploratory work is presented using linear discriminant analyses and several fossils are included to provide paleoecological reconstructions.We found no significant differences in the predictive power of distinct morphometric descriptors or habitat criteria, although sample splitting into small and large cat guilds greatly improves the stability of the models. Significant insights emerge for three long-canine cats:Smilodon populator,Paramachairodus orientalis, andDinofelissp. from Olduvai Gorge (East Africa).S. populatorandP. orientalisare both predicted to have been closed-habitat adapted taxa. The false “sabertooth”Dinofelissp. from Olduvai Gorge is predicted to be adapted to mixed habitat. The application of felid humerus ecomorphology to the carnivoran record of Olduvai Gorge shows that the older stratigraphic levels (Bed I, 1.99–1.79 Ma) included a broader range of environments than Beds II or V, where there is an abundance of cats adapted to open environments.

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Boev, Zlatozar. "Late Pleistocene Crocuta crocuta spelaea in Bulgaria: distribution and history of research (Carnivora: Hyaenidae)." Lynx new series 51, no. 1 (2021): 19–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.37520/lynx.2020.002.

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The paper summarizes all scattered data from the last 116 years on the distribution of the Late Pleistocene cave hyena in Bulgaria, a part of them unpublished. Data from 24 fossil sites (Middle Pleistocene – Late Pleistocene) in the country are presented. The fossil record in Bulgaria proves the wide distribution of the species in the karst areas of the low-mountain regions of the country. Its Pleistocene localities are concentrated in the Predbalkan Mts. (83%), Strandja Mts. (8%), Western Rhodopes Mts. (4%) and southern Dobruja Plain (4%). They are situated at the altitudes between 136 and 1250 m a.s.l., about 75% of them at 136–400 m a. s. l. All (except one) Bulgarian sites represent former human dwellings, which indicates competition between man and this carnivore for the cave spaces.

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Koretsky, I., S. Rahmat, and N. Peters. "Rare Late Miocene Seal Taxa (Carnivora, Phocidae) from the North Sea Basin." Vestnik Zoologii 48, no. 5 (October 1, 2014): 419–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/vzoo-2014-0050.

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Abstract Rare Late Miocene Seal Taxa (Carnivora, Phocidae) from the North Sea Basin. Koretsky, I., Rahmat, S., Peters, N. - Th e discovery of new late Miocene fossil true seals from the North Sea Basin in Northern Europe provides important information regarding the radiation of monachines and phocines in the Eastern Atlantic. Examination of the first fossil seal remains from the Gram Formation, western Denmark, allowed redescriptions and emended diagnoses of several taxa. Analysis of diagnostic material recovered from western Denmark and Th e Netherlands shows the presence of at least three phocid genera and reveals new information on the taxonomic variability of true seals. Due to the close relationships that exist between these phocid faunas, a correlation was demonstrated between different localities of Northern and Western Europe and provides the opportunity to associate localities of the Western and Central Paratethys with the eastern and western shores of the North Atlantic. Morphological analyses of postcranial material identifi ed three new late Miocene species (Pontophoca jutlandica, Subfamily Monachinae; Gryphoca nordica and Platyphoca danica, both Subfamily Phocinae), suggesting that the maximum evolutionary diversity of mid-Tertiary phocids occurred first in the Paratethys and later in the North Atlantic Basins.

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Joeckel, R. M. "Unique frontal sinuses in fossil and living Hyaenidae (Mammalia, Carnivora): description and interpretation." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 18, no. 3 (September 15, 1998): 627–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02724634.1998.10011089.

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Tseng, Z. Jack, and Jonathan H. Geisler. "The first fossil record of borophagine dogs (Mammalia, Carnivora) from South Carolina, U.S.A." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 36, no. 2 (January 13, 2016): e1062022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2015.1062022.

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Boev, Zlatozar. "Past distribution of Ursus arctos in Bulgaria: fossil and subfossil records (Carnivora: Ursidae)." Lynx new series 51, no. 1 (2021): 5–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.37520/lynx.2020.001.

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The paper summarizes numerous scattered data from the last 120 years on the former distribution of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Bulgaria. Data from 52 (13 fossil and 39 subfossil) sites (from the Middle Pleistocene to the 19th century AD) are presented. The brown bear former distribution was much wider than the present occurrence. The species range covered the whole territory of the country, including mountain regions, as well as vast lowland and plain landscapes. The geographical, altitudinal and chronological distribution are presented and analyzed. The record from the Kozarnika Cave (1.000,000–700,000 years BP) is one of the earliest records of this species in Europe. About 73% of the localities are situated between 100 and 500 m a. s. l. Twelve sites contain Paleolithic finds, one Mesolithic, 14 Neolithic, six Chalcolithic, five from the Bronze Age, and two from the Iron Age. The remaining 12 subrecent sites are dated to the last ca. 2,400 years. Most of the species findings came from archeological sites – prehistoric and ancient settlements. The distribution of Ursus arctos once covered the entire territory of the country, including the vast regions such as Ludogorie, Dobruja, the Danube Lowland, the Upper Thracian Lowland, as well as the Sakar, Strandja, Sredna Gora, and the Predbalkan Mts.

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Lim, Jong-Deock, Larry D. Martin, and Robert W. Wilson. "A new species of Leptarctus (Carnivora, Mustelidae) from the Late Miocene of Texas." Journal of Paleontology 75, no. 5 (September 2001): 1043–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022336000039925.

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Leptarctus is a poorly known fossil carnivore that ranges through the Miocene of North America and Inner Mongolia, China (Lim, 1996; Zhai, 1964). Though it has been one of the least studied carnivores, more than 20 localities in North America have produced Leptarctus (Lim, 1999). The characters diagnosing Leptarctus as a mustelid include absence of M2, absence of a notch between the blades of the upper carnassial, and a reduced dentition with loss of PI and pi. Though Leptarctus is a mustelid, the teeth bear many similarities to those of procyonids, Procyon lotor and Nasua nasua and stand as a remarkable example of dental convergence (Leidy, 1856; Lim, 1999). Unlike other mustelids, Leptarctus has prominent double sagittal crests, heavy zygomatic arches, a prominent occipital crest, a well-developed hypocone on P4, labially curved upper canines, grooved lower canines, raccoon-like mandibles, elongated metatarsals, and unique bony projections on the tympanic bullae (Lim, 1999).

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Heinrich, Ronald E., Suzanne G. Strait, and Peter Houde. "Earliest Eocene Miacidae (Mammalia: Carnivora) from northwestern Wyoming." Journal of Paleontology 82, no. 1 (January 2008): 154–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1666/05-118.1.

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Fossil carnivorans are described from earliest Eocene localities in the Clarks Fork and southern Bighorn basins of Wyoming. Three new species, Miacis rosei, Uintacyon gingerichi, and Vassacyon bowni, collected from the base of the Wasatchian North American Land Mammal Age (Wa-0), are the smallest and possibly most basal members of their respective genera, and increase from one to four the number of miacids known from this faunal zone. An upper dentition of Miacis deutschi from slightly younger (Wa-2) deposits is also described. Previously known only from lower teeth and a single M1, the specimen of M. deutschi includes the left P3-M2, alveoli for the canine, first two premolars and the last molar, as well as most of the maxilla. the new material helps fill gaps in our knowledge of the dental morphology of basal Miacidae and provides insight into the functional differences of the carnassial teeth in the diverging Uintacyon and Miacis lineages. It also provides an opportunity to further assess the hypothesis that climactic warming in the earliest Eocene resulted in evolutionary dwarfing of mammalian species; based on three criteria for identifying dwarfed species at least one of the new taxa, U. gingerichi, is consistent with this hypothesis.

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Labandeira, Conrad C. "Paleobiology of Predators, Parasitoids, and Parasites: Death and Accomodation in the Fossil Record of Continental Invertebrates." Paleontological Society Papers 8 (October 2002): 211–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1089332600001108.

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Carnivory is the consumption of one animal by another animal; among invertebrates in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems this type of feeding can take three forms: predation, parasitoidism, and parasitism. Differences among these three functional modes involve (i) whether the duration of feeding on the prey item is quick or there is an accommodation, coevolutionary or otherwise, between the carnivore and the host prey; (ii) whether the prey or host is killed; (iii) whether single or multiple prey or host items are consumed during the carnivore's lifespan, and (iv) the relative sizes of the carnivore and its prey or host. Uniformitarian and nonuniformitarian evidence directly relating to the history of carnivory can be found in exceptionally preserved deposits from the mid-Paleozoic to the Recent, but such evidence is relatively rare because carnivores are the least represented trophic group in ecosystems. Six types of paleobiological data provide evidence for carnivory: taxonomic affiliation, fossil structural and functional attributes, organismic damage, gut contents, coprolites, and indications of mechanisms for predator avoidance.Only 12 invertebrate phyla have become carnivorous in the continental realm. Six are lophotrochozoans (Acanthocephala, Rotifera, Platyhelminthes, Nemertinea, Mollusca, and Annelida) and six are ecdysozoans (Nematoda, Nematomorpha, Tardigrada, Onychophora, Pentastoma, and Arthropoda). Most of these groups have poor continental fossil records, but the two most diverse—nematodes and arthropods—have comparatively good representation. The record of arthropods documents (i) the presence of predators among primary producers, herbivores, and decomposers in early terrestrial ecosystems; (ii) the addition later in the fossil record of the more accommodationist strategies of parasitoids and parasites interacting with animal hosts; (iii) the occurrence of simpler food-web structures in terrestrial ecosystems prior to parasitoid and parasite diversification; and (iv) a role for mass extinction in the degradation of food-web structure that ultimately affected carnivory. Future research should explore how different modes of carnivory have brought about changes in ecosystem structure through time. Despite numerous caveats and uncertainties, trace fossils left by predators on skeletons of their prey remain one of the most promising research directions in paleoecology and evolutionary paleobiology.

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Schiaffini, Mauro Ignacio, and Francisco Juan Prevosti. "Taxonomy and systematic of fossil hog-nosed skunks, genus Conepatus (Carnivora: Mephitidae) from Argentina." Journal of South American Earth Sciences 89 (January 2019): 140–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsames.2018.11.010.

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Werdelin, L. "Circumventing a Constraint - the Case of Thylacoleo (Marsupialia, Thylacoleonidae)." Australian Journal of Zoology 36, no. 5 (1988): 565. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/zo9880565.

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Marsupial carnivores of the order Dasyurida are more uniform in molar morphology and jaw geometry than are their placental counterparts. This difference is related to the difference in tooth replacement between marsupials and placentals. In Carnivora, the permanent carnassial can erupt in its (geometrically) permanent position, and the post-carnassial teeth are free to evolve in various ways. In the Dasyurida, each erupting molar in turn functions as carnassial before being pushed forwards (relatively) in the jaw by the next erupting molar, which in turn becomes the carnassial. Thus, in the Dasyurida, all molars come to have carnassiform morphology. One group of Australian fossil carnivores has avoided this constraint: the Thylacoleonidae, 'marsupial lions'. In this group, P3/3 are the teeth functioning as carnassials, having been coopted for this function from the presumed sectorial P3/3 of the herbivorous ancestors of Thylacoleonidae. This has made molar reduction possible in this group, but has brought about some incidental effects. P3/3 lie far forward in the jaw, and the muscle resultant has been shifted forwards to compensate for this, reducing gape, but increasing bite force at I1/1, teeth which function as canines in Thylacoleonidae.

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Valenciano, Alberto, and Romala Govender. "New insights into the giant mustelids (Mammalia, Carnivora, Mustelidae) from Langebaanweg fossil site (West Coast Fossil Park, South Africa, early Pliocene)." PeerJ 8 (June 1, 2020): e9221. http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9221.

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Giant mustelids are a paraphyletic group of mustelids found in the Neogene of Eurasia, Africa and North America. Most are known largely from dental remains, with their postcranial skeleton mostly unknown. Here, we describe new craniodental and postcranial remains of the large lutrine Sivaonyx hendeyi and the leopard-size gulonine Plesiogulo aff. monspessulanus from the early Pliocene site Langebaanweg, South Africa. The new material of the endemic S. hendeyi, includes upper incisors and premolars, and fragmentary humerus, ulna and a complete astragalus. Its postcrania shares more traits with the living Aonyx capensis than the late Miocene Sivaonyx beyi from Chad. Sivaonyx hendeyi could therefore be tentatively interpreted as a relatively more aquatic taxon than the Chadian species, comparable to A. capensis. The new specimens of Plesiogulo comprise two edentulous maxillae, including one of a juvenile individual with incomplete decidual dentition, and a fragmentary forelimb of an adult individual. The new dental measurements point to this form being amongst the largest specimens of the genus. Both P3-4 differs from the very large species Plesiogulo botori from late Miocene of Kenya and Ethiopia. This confirms the existence of two distinct large species of Plesiogulo in Africa during the Mio/Pliocene, P. botori in the Late Miocene of Eastern Africa (6.1–5.5 Ma) and Plesiogulo aff. monspessulanus at the beginning of the Pliocene in southern Africa (5.2 Ma). Lastly, we report for the first time the presence of both Sivaonyx and Plesiogulo in MPPM and LQSM at Langebaanweg, suggesting that the differences observed from the locality may be produced by sedimentation or sampling biases instead of temporal replacement within the carnivoran guild.

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Boev, Zlatozar. "Past distribution of Monachus monachus in Bulgaria – subfossil and historical records (Carnivora: Phocidae)." Lynx new series 49, no. 1 (2018): 163–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/lynx-2018-0013.

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The paper summarizes numerous scattered data on the former distribution of the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) along the western Black Sea coast and the lower Danube bank in Bulgaria. Data on 25 sites of historical (last two centuries), two sites of subfossil, and one site of fossil records are presented (23 from the Black Sea coast, two from the Danube). Four stuffed skins, two skulls and two subfossil limb bones are kept in three Bulgarian museum collections. The latest record of the monk seal in Bulgaria was documented on 8 December 1996.

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Bryant, Harold N. "Wolverine from the Pleistocene of the Yukon: evolutionary trends and taxonomy of Gulo (Carnivora: Mustelidae)." Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 24, no. 4 (April 1, 1987): 654–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e87-063.

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Dental and mandibular measurements on a sample of Gulo gulo of possible Sangamonian to Wisconsinan age from the Old Crow Basin in the Yukon average 2.7% smaller than comparable measurements of the extant form. The difference in the width of P4 is statistically significant. These results do not differ significantly from Harington's previous analysis of a similar sample from Old Crow, and comparable data from the two studies were pooled. Dimensions in the pooled fossil sample average 4.3% smaller; differences in the length and width of both P4 and M1, and the length of the P4–M1, tooth row are significant. Bivariate analysis indicates that P2 and P4 are significantly narrower in the fossil sample. Old Crow wolverines conform to the general trend of increasing size and broadening of certain teeth, especially P4, from the mid-Pleistocene appearance of Gulo in Europe and North America to the end of the Wisconsinan. Referral of the small mid-Pleistocene Gulo to a distinct chronospecies, G. schlosseri, is questioned based on fluctuations in the size of the teeth and the variation associated with other trends in dental morphology in wolverine populations during the Quaternary in Europe and North America.

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Tarasenko, K. K., S. Yu Engalychev, and A. V. Lopatin. "The first find of fossil seals (phocidae, carnivora, mammalia) in the Maikop beds of Kalmykia." Doklady Biological Sciences 465, no. 1 (November 2015): 291–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1134/s0012496615060095.

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Bebej, Ryan M. "Swimming Mode Inferred from Skeletal Proportions in the Fossil Pinnipeds Enaliarctos and Allodesmus (Mammalia, Carnivora)." Journal of Mammalian Evolution 16, no. 2 (October 3, 2008): 77–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10914-008-9099-1.

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Ghaffar, Abdul, and Muhammad Akhtar. "New fossil record of Hyaenictitherium pilgrimi (Carnivora: Hyaenidae) from Dhok Pathan Formation of Hasnot, Pakistan." Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 131, no. 2 (April 22, 2012): 275–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13358-012-0042-y.

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Dewaele, Leonard, Carlos Mauricio Peredo, Pjotr Meyvisch, and Stephen Louwye. "Diversity of late Neogene Monachinae (Carnivora, Phocidae) from the North Atlantic, with the description of two new species." Royal Society Open Science 5, no. 3 (March 2018): 172437. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.172437.

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While the diversity of ‘southern seals’, or Monachinae, in the North Atlantic realm is currently limited to the Mediterranean monk seal, Monachus monachus , their diversity was much higher during the late Miocene and Pliocene. Although the fossil record of Monachinae from the North Atlantic is mainly composed of isolated specimens, many taxa have been erected on the basis of fragmentary and incomparable specimens. The humerus is commonly considered the most diagnostic postcranial bone. The research presented in this study limits the selection of type specimens for different fossil Monachinae to humeri and questions fossil taxa that have other types of bones as type specimens, such as for Terranectes parvus . In addition, it is essential that the humeri selected as type specimens are (almost) complete. This questions the validity of partial humeri selected as type specimens, such as for Terranectes magnus . This study revises Callophoca obscura , Homiphoca capensis and Pliophoca etrusca , all purportedly known from the Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, in addition to their respective type localities in Belgium, South Africa and Italy, respectively. C. obscura is retained as a monachine seal taxon that lived both on the east coast of North America and in the North Sea Basin. However, H. capensis from North America cannot be identified beyond the genus level, and specimens previously assigned to Pl. etrusca from North America clearly belong to different taxa. Indeed, we also present new material and describe two new genera of late Miocene and Pliocene Monachinae from the east coast of North America: Auroraphoca atlantica nov. gen. et nov. sp., and Virginiaphoca magurai nov. gen. et nov. sp. This suggests less faunal interchange of late Neogene Monachinae between the east and west coasts of the North Atlantic than previously expected.

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Tseng, Zhijie Jack, and Xiaoming Wang. "Cranial functional morphology of fossil dogs and adaptation for durophagy in Borophagus and Epicyon (Carnivora, Mammalia)." Journal of Morphology 271, no. 11 (August 26, 2010): 1386–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jmor.10881.

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Gimranov, D. O., V. G. Kotov, M. M. Rumyantsev, V. I. Silaev, A. G. Yakovlev, T. I. Yakovleva, N. V. Zelenkov, et al. "A Mass Burial of Fossil Lions (Carnivora, Felidae, Panthera (Leo) ex gr. fossilis-spelaea) from Eurasia." Doklady Biological Sciences 482, no. 1 (September 2018): 191–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1134/s0012496618050046.

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Jasinski, Steven E., and Steven C. Wallace. "A Borophagine canid (Carnivora: Canidae: Borophaginae) from the middle Miocene Chesapeake Group of eastern North America." Journal of Paleontology 89, no. 6 (November 2015): 1082–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2016.17.

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AbstractA tooth recovered from the middle Miocene Choptank Formation (Chesapeake Group) of Maryland is identified as a new cynarctin borophagine (Canidae: Borophaginae: Cynarctina), here called Cynarctus wangi n. sp. The tooth, identified as a right upper second molar, represents the first carnivoran material reported from the Choptank Formation and part of a limited record of borophagine canids from eastern North America. As ?Cynarctus marylandica (Berry, 1938), another cynarctin borophagine from the older Calvert Formation, is known only from lower dentition, its generic affinities are uncertain. However, features of this new material are compared to features of ?C. marylandica through occlusal relationships, allowing for referral to a distinct species. Even so, the Choptank Formation material still offers two possible scenarios regarding its identification. In one, its geographic and stratigraphic provenance could imply that it belongs to ?C. marylandica. If this were correct, then the generic placement of ?C. marylandica would be correct and the taxon would be more derived than some other Cynarctus species in regard to hypocarnivory, and less derived than others. The second possibility, and the one believed to be most probable, is that a distinct cynarctin borophagine is present in the Chesapeake Group in strata younger than the type specimen of ?C. marylandica. This new borophagine canid expands the sparse fossil record of this group in northeastern North America and furthers our knowledge of the fossil record of terrestrial taxa in this region.

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Prassack, Kari A. "Lontra weiri, sp. nov., a Pliocene river otter (Mammalia, Carnivora, Mustelidae, Lutrinae) from the Hagerman Fossil Beds (Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument), Idaho, U.S.A." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 36, no. 4 (April 11, 2016): e1149075. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2016.1149075.

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Dewaele, Leonard, Olivier Lambert, and Stephen Louwye. "A critical revision of the fossil record, stratigraphy and diversity of the Neogene seal genus Monotherium (Carnivora, Phocidae)." Royal Society Open Science 5, no. 5 (May 2018): 171669. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.171669.

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Historically, Monotherium had been one of the few genera of extinct Phocidae (true seals) that served as a wastebin taxon. Consequently, it did neither aid in understanding phylogenetic relationships of extinct Phocidae, nor in understanding seal diversity in deep time. This urged the reassessment of the genus. Before our review, Monotherium included five different species: Monotherium aberratum , Monotherium affine , and Monotherium delognii from Belgium; Monotherium gaudini from Italy; and Monotherium ? wymani from the east coast USA. In this work we redescribe the fossil record of the genus, retaining the type species M. delognii . Monotherium aberratum and M. affine are reassigned to the new phocine genus Frisiphoca . Monotherium gaudini is renamed and considered a stem-monachine ( Noriphoca gaudini ). The holotype of the monachine M. ? wymani requires further study pending the discovery of new fossil material that could be attributed to the same taxon. Reinvestigating the stratigraphic context reveals that N. gaudini most likely represents one of the two oldest named phocid seals, or even the oldest, dated to the late Oligocene–earliest Miocene. Our results allow questioning the widespread idea that Phocidae originated in the western Atlantic and better appreciate their palaeobiogeography during the late Oligocene–Miocene interval in the North Atlantic realm.

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Finarelli, John A. "Testing hypotheses of the evolution of encephalization in the Canidae (Carnivora, Mammalia)." Paleobiology 34, no. 1 (2008): 35–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1666/07030.1.

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Evolutionary trends observed over large clades have the potential to mask underlying trends that occur within their constituent subclades. A recent study of encephalization in the Caniformia (Carnivora, Mammalia) found evidence for an abrupt increase in median log-encephalization quotients (logEQs), indicating higher brain volume relative to body mass, at the end-Miocene, but gradual increase in the variance of logEQs. In this study, new endocranial volume estimates for fossil taxa in the well-sampled caniform subclade Canidae are reported. Using the encephalization data for the Canidae, hypotheses of evolution in encephalization allometries were tested with respect to canid phylogeny. The Akaike Information Criterion and likelihood ratios recovered support for a preferred hypothesis of the evolution of canid encephalization, which proposed two distinct allometric relationships: (1) a plesiomorphic grade of encephalization in the subfamilies Hesperocyoninae and Borophaginae and the paraphyletic canine genus Leptocyon, and (2) an apomorphic grade in the crown radiation of Caninae. This defines a shift in to higher encephalization, but without an associated change in the variance around the allometry. Increased canid encephalization coincides with a reorganization of the brain and the observed trend may reflect the evolution of complex social behavior in this clade.

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Abella, J., P. Montoya, and J. Morales. "Una nueva especie de Agriarctos (Ailuropodinae, Ursidae, Carnivora) en la localidad de Nombrevilla 2 (Zaragoza, España)." Estudios Geológicos 67, no. 2 (December 30, 2011): 187. http://dx.doi.org/10.3989/egeol.40714.182.

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Una nueva especie de úrsido primitivo, Agriarctos beatrix procedente de la localidad de Nombrevilla 2 (Zaragoza, cuenca de Calatayud-Daroca) es descrita en este trabajo. Los nuevos fósiles de Nombrevilla 2 se relacionan estrechamente con Agriarctos depereti de la localidad de Soblay (Vallesiense superior, Francia), pero en la forma española los caracteres derivados compartidos son más primitivos. Agriarctos beatrix es la primera aparición conocida hasta el presente de un miembro de la subfamilia Ailuropodinae en el registro fossil.

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Rahmat, S. J., and I. Koretsky. "First Record of Postcranial Bones in Devinophoca emryi (Carnivora, Phocidae, Devinophocinae)." Vestnik Zoologii 50, no. 1 (February 1, 2016): 71–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/vzoo-2016-0009.

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Abstract The Devinophoca emryi material from the early Badenian, early Middle Miocene (16.26–14.89 Ma) presents mixed cranial and especially postcranial characters with the three extant phocid subfamilies (Cystophorinae, Monachinae and Phocinae), as well as unique postcranial characters not seen in any taxa. These distinguishing characters (i. e. well-outlined, large oval facet on greater tubercle of humerus; broader width between the head and lesser tubercle of humerus; femoral proximal epiphysis larger than distal; thin innominate ilium that is excavated on ventral surface) demonstrate that this material belongs to a recently described species (D. emryi). During ecomorphotype analyses, fossil humerus and femur bones were directly associated with their corresponding mandible to reveal associations based on Recent morphological analogues. Strong correlation between ecomorphotypes and postcranial morphology supports placement of this material to D. emryi and not its sister taxon, D. claytoni. The previously described skull, mandible and teeth and postcranial bones described herein were discovered at the same locality during excavations at the base of the Malé Karpaty Mountains (Slovakia), at the junction of the Morava and Danube rivers. The geological age of D. emryi and the presence of mixed characters strongly suggest that this species was an early relative to the ancestor of seals, possibly being a terminal branch of the phocid tree. This material allows for emended diagnoses of the species, updated assessments of geographical distribution and provides further material for clarification of controversial phylogenetic relationships in Phocidae.

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Gimranov, D., V. Kotov, M. Rumyantsev, V. Silayev, A. Yakovlev, T. Yakovleva, N. Zelenkov, et al. "A Mass Burial of Fossil Lions (Carnivora, Felidae, Panthera (Leo) ex gr. fossilis-spelaea) from the Eurasia." Доклады академии наук 482, no. 2 (September 2018): 231–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.31857/s086956520003216-0.

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Walsh, Stig, and Darren Naish. "Fossil Seals from Late Neogene Deposits in South America: A New Pinniped (Carnivora, Mammalia) Assemblage from Chile." Palaeontology 45, no. 4 (July 2002): 821–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1475-4983.00262.

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Tseng, Zhijie Jack. "Variation and implications of intra-dentition Hunter-Schreger band pattern in fossil hyaenids and canids (Carnivora, Mammalia)." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31, no. 5 (September 2011): 1163–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2011.602161.

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Tseng, Zhijie Jack, Mauricio Antón, and Manuel J. Salesa. "The evolution of the bone-cracking model in carnivorans: cranial functional morphology of the Plio-Pleistocene cursorial hyaenid Chasmaporthetes lunensis (Mammalia: Carnivora)." Paleobiology 37, no. 1 (2011): 140–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1666/09045.1.

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Fossil species of the family Hyaenidae represent a wide range of ecomorphological diversity not observed in living representatives of this carnivoran group. Among them, the cursorial meat-and-bone specialists are of particular interest not only because they were the most cursorial of the hyaenids, but also because they were the only members of this family to spread into the New World. Here we conduct a functional morphological analysis of the cranium of the cursorial meat-and-bone specialist Chasmaporthetes lunensis by using finite element modeling to compare it with the living Crocuta crocuta, a well-known bone-cracking carnivoran. As found with previous finite element studies on hyaenid crania, the cranium of C. lunensis is not differentially adapted for stress dissipation between the bone-cracking and meat-shearing teeth. A smaller occlusal surface on the more slender P3 cusp of C. lunensis allowed this species to use less bite force to crack a comparably-sized bone relative to C. crocuta, but higher muscle masses in the latter probably allow it to process larger food items. We use two indices, the stress slope and the bone-cracking index, to show that C. lunensis has a well-adapted cranium for stress dissipation given its size, but the main stresses placed on its cranium might have been more from subduing prey and less from cracking bones. Throughout the Cenozoic, other carnivores besides hyaenids convergently evolved similar morphologies, including domed frontal regions, suggesting an adaptive value for a repetitive mosaic of features. Our analyses add support to the hypothesis that bone-cracking adaptations are a complex model that has evolved convergently several times across different carnivoran families, and these predictable morphologies may evolve along a common gradient of functionality that is likely to be under strong adaptive control.

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Pires, Mathias M., Daniele Silvestro, and Tiago B. Quental. "Continental faunal exchange and the asymmetrical radiation of carnivores." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282, no. 1817 (October 22, 2015): 20151952. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.1952.

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Lineages arriving on islands may undergo explosive evolutionary radiations owing to the wealth of ecological opportunities. Although studies on insular taxa have improved our understanding of macroevolutionary phenomena, we know little about the macroevolutionary dynamics of continental exchanges. Here we study the evolution of eight Carnivora families that have migrated across the Northern Hemisphere to investigate if continental invasions also result in explosive diversification dynamics. We used a Bayesian approach to estimate speciation and extinction rates from a substantial dataset of fossil occurrences while accounting for the incompleteness of the fossil record. Our analyses revealed a strongly asymmetrical pattern in which North American lineages invading Eurasia underwent explosive radiations, whereas lineages invading North America maintained uniform diversification dynamics. These invasions into Eurasia were characterized by high rates of speciation and extinction. The radiation of the arriving lineages in Eurasia coincide with the decline of established lineages or phases of climate change, suggesting differences in the ecological settings between the continents may be responsible for the disparity in diversification dynamics. These results reveal long-term outcomes of biological invasions and show that the importance of explosive radiations in shaping diversity extends beyond insular systems and have significant impact at continental scales.

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Boeskorov, G. G., G. F. Baryshnikov, A. N. Tikhonov, A. V. Protopopov, A. I. Klimovsky, S. E. Grigoriev, M. Yu Cheprasov, G. P. Novgorodov, M. V. Shchelchkova, and J. Van der Plicht. "New data on the large brown bear (Ursus arctos L., 1758, Ursidae, Carnivora, Mammalia) from the pleistocene of Yakutia." Доклады Академии наук 486, no. 6 (June 28, 2019): 685–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.31857/s0869-56524866685-690.

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New finds of the fossil brown bear (Ursus arctos L., 1758) remains from the territory of Yakutia have been investigated: skulls and mandibular bones. The new finds are of exceptionally large sizes, most of their measurements far exceed those of not only the modern brown bear from Yakutia, but also the maximum values of the largest representatives of modern subspecies from Eurasia, U. a. beringianus and U. a. piscator. Analysis of various data indicates that the giant brown bear existed in the north of Yakutia during the Karginian interstadial of the Late Pleistocene.

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Churchill, Morgan, and Robert W. Boessenecker. "Taxonomy and biogeography of the Pleistocene New Zealand sea lionNeophoca palatina(Carnivora: Otariidae)." Journal of Paleontology 90, no. 2 (March 2016): 375–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2016.15.

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AbstractThe Otariidae (fur seals and sea lions) are an important and highly visible component of Southern Hemisphere marine mammal faunas. However, fossil material of Southern Hemisphere otariids is comparatively rare and often fragmentary. One exception is the Pleistocene sea lionNeophoca palatinaKing, 1983a, which is known from a nearly complete skull from the North Island of New Zealand. However, the phylogenetic affinities of this taxon are poorly known, and comparisons with other taxa have been limited. We provide an extensive redescription ofNeophoca palatinaand diagnose this taxon using a morphometric approach. Twenty measurements of the skull were collected forN. palatina, as well as for all extant Australasian otariids and several fossilNeophoca cinereaPerón, 1816. Using principal component analysis, we were able to segregate taxa by genus, andN. palatinawas found to cluster withNeophocaaccording to overall size of the skull as well as increased width of the intertemporal constriction and interorbital region.N. palatinacan be distinguished from all other Australasian otariids by its unusually broad basisphenoid. Discriminant function analysis supported referral ofNeophoca palatinatoNeophocawith very high posterior probability. These results confirm the treatment ofNeophoca palatinaas a distinct species ofNeophocaand highlight the former broad distribution and greater tolerance for colder temperatures of this genus. These results also suggest that New Zealand may have played a pivotal role in the diversification of Southern Hemisphere otariid seals.

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Morales, Jorge, Oldřich Fejfar, Elmar Heizmann, Jan Wagner, Alberto Valenciano, and Juan Abella. "A New Thaumastocyoninae (Amphicyonidae, Carnivora) from the Early Miocene of Tuchořice, the Czech Republic." Fossil Imprint 75, no. 3-4 (December 1, 2019): 397–411. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/if-2019-0025.

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Abstract New Amphicyonidae fossil remains from the early Miocene site of Tuchořice (the Czech Republic) confirm the presence of a new Thaumastocyoninae taxon: Peignecyon felinoides n. gen. et n. sp. It is characterized by a peculiar combination of plesiomorphic and derived morphological traits. The new genus can be defined by a long and sharp mandible diastema, loss of mesial premolars (p2–p3), p4 with an inclined distally high main cuspid, moderate sectorial carnassial teeth, m1 with relict metaconid, and talonid and trigonid of similar width, and reduced M2 and m2. In the phylogenetic analysis the Thaumastocyoninae form a monophyletic group characterized by the start of the m2/M2 reduction, still moderate in Crassidia intermedia (von Meyer, 1849), but remarkable in the other species of the clade. Peignecyon felinoides already shows the advanced features defining the Thaumastocyoninae, and constitutes the sister group of the most specialized genera Tomocyon Viret, 1929b and Thaumastocyon Sthelin et Helbing, 1925. Consequently, it can be considered an excellent link between this group and the more primitive members of the tribe Ysengrini (Ysengrinia Ginsburg, 1966 and Crassidia Heizmannn et Kordikova, 2000). Peignecyon felinoides shows that the trend towards hypercarnivory had already emerged in the European early Miocene fauna, thus helping to understand the complex evolution of the Amphicyonidae during the Miocene.

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Tseng, Zhijie Jack, and Xiaoming Wang. "Do convergent ecomorphs evolve through convergent morphological pathways? Cranial shape evolution in fossil hyaenids and borophagine canids (Carnivora, Mammalia)." Paleobiology 37, no. 3 (2011): 470–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1666/10007.1.

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Cases of convergent evolution, particularly within ecomorphological contexts, are instructive in identifying universally adaptive morphological features across clades. Tracing of evolutionary pathways by which ecomorphological convergence takes place can further reveal mechanisms of adaptation, which may be strongly influenced by phylogeny. Ecomorphologies of carnivorous mammals represent some of the most outstanding cases of convergent evolution in the Cenozoic radiation of mammals. This study examined patterns of cranial shape change in the dog (Canidae) and hyena (Hyaenidae) families, in order to compare the evolutionary pathways that led to the independent specialization of bone-cracking hypercarnivores within each clade. Geometric morphometrics analyses of cranial shape in fossil hyaenids and borophagine canids provided evidence for deep-time convergence in morphological pathways toward the independent evolution of derived bone-crackers. Both clades contained stem members with plesiomorphic generalist/omnivore cranial shapes, which evolved into doglike species along parallel pathways of shape change. The evolution of specialized bone-crackers from these doglike forms, however, continued under the constraint of a full cheek dentition and restriction on rostrum length reduction in canids, but not hyaenids. Functionally, phylogenetic constraint may have limited borophagine canids to crack bones principally with their carnassial instead of the third premolar as in hyaenids, but other cranial shape changes associated with durophagy nevertheless evolved in parallel in the two lineages. Size allometry was not a major factor in cranial shape evolution in either lineage, supporting the interpretation of functional demands as drivers for the observed convergence. The comparison between borophagines and hyaenids showed that differential effects of alternative functional “solutions” that arise during morphological evolution may be multiplied with processes of the “macroevolutionary ratchet” already in place to further limit the evolutionary pathways available to specialized lineages.

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Prevosti, Francisco J. "New material of Pleistocene cats (Carnivora, Felidae) from Southern South America, with comments on biogeography and the fossil record." Geobios 39, no. 5 (September 2006): 679–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geobios.2005.01.004.

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de Bonis, Louis, Stephane Peigne, Andossa Likius, Hassane T. Makaye, Michel Brunet, and Patrick Vignaud. "First occurrence of the ‘hunting hyena’ Chasmaporthetes in the Late Miocene fossil bearing localities of Toros Menalla, Chad (Africa)." Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France 178, no. 4 (July 1, 2007): 317–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.2113/gssgfbull.178.4.317.

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Abstract Late Miocene localities of Toros Menalla (Chad) have yielded many bones of fossil vertebrates with a lot of mammalian remains. Among the mammals, there are several Carnivora taxa, especially hyenids. The family Hyaenidae is very well developed during this period with classical bone crusher species but also with flesh eater taxa which are called hunting hyenas. The genus Chasmaporthetes is one of these taxa. It was described from North America, Asia, Euro-pa and South Africa but it is recorded for the first time in central Africa. The Chadian specimens are close to the South African species C. australis (Hendey, 1974) but differs through some morphological and metrical details. C. australis is a huge hunting hyena, a little bigger than the extant species Crocuta crocuta, the spotted hyena. An isolated premolar recorded in the locality Sahabi (Libya) belongs probably to the same group. The spreading of this large hunting species is probably correlated with the abundance of large ungulates in the local faunas.

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Journal articles on the topic 'Carnivora, Fossil'

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