Microtomarctus

Microtomarctus
Temporal range: Early Miocene–Middle Miocene
Replica of lower jaw at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Subfamily: †Borophaginae
Tribe: †Borophagini
Genus: †Microtomarctus
Wang et al., 1999
Species:
†M. confertus
Binomial name
†Microtomarctus confertus
Matthew, 1918

Microtomarctus is an extinct monospecific genus of the Borophaginae subfamily of canids native to North America. It lived during the Early to Middle Miocene,[1] and existed for approximately 7 million years. Fossil specimens have been found in Nebraska, coastal southeast Texas, California, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado. It was an intermediate-size canid, and more predaceous than earlier borophagines.[2]

Like some other borophagines it had powerful, bone-crushing jaws and teeth.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ PaleoBiology Database: Microtomarctus Taxonomy, Species
  2. ^ Wang, Xiaoming; Tedford, Richard H. (2008). Dogs, Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History. Columbia. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-231-13528-3.


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