The last amphicyonid in Africa

• Amphicyonidae are a common element of carnivoran faunas in the early and middle Miocene of Eurasia and North America, but by the Messinian they had become extinct there, except possibly on the Indian subcontinent. In Africa, amphicyonids are poorly known from a scattering of records from the late Oligocene to the late Miocene. In this paper, we describe the last-surviving amphicyonid in Africa, from Messinian-age sediments (dated c. 6.5-5.3 Ma) of Ethiopia (Gona) and Kenya (Lothagam and possibly Lemudong’o). Th is new taxon shows unique adaptations to hypercarnivory in the lower molars and was small for an amphicyonid, dentally about the size of a coyote, Canis latrans.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Zoologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Zoology (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)