Lycaon (genus)

Not to be confused with Canis lupus lycaon.
Lycaon
Two dogs sharing a meal.
Dogs of the genus Lycaon eat mostly meat.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Tribe: Canini
Genus: Lycaon
Brookes, 1827
Species

L. pictus (Temminck, 1820)
L. sekowei Hartstone-Rose et al., 2010

Lycaon is a genus of canid. There are two known species: Lycaon pictus, a canid with common names including "African wild dog", "painted dog", "ornate wolf", and "African hunting dog"; and Lycaon sekowei, an extinct species known only from skeletal remains. This hypercarnivorous and highly cursorial genus is distinguished by accessory cusps on the premolars. It branched off from the wolf-like canids during the Plio-Pleistocene. Since then, Lycaon has become lighter and tetradactyl, but have remained hypercarnivorous.[1]

See also

References

  1. Hartstone-Rose, A.; Werdelin, L.; De Ruiter, D. J.; Berger, L. R.; Churchill, S. E. (2010). "The Plio-Pleistocene Ancestor of Wild Dogs, Lycaon sekowei n. sp". Journal of Paleontology. 84 (2): 299308. doi:10.1666/09-124.1.
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