Amphicynodontidae Explained

Amphicynodontidae is a probable clade of extinct arctoids. While some researchers consider this group to be an extinct subfamily of bears,^[1] a variety of morphological evidence links amphicynodontines with pinnipeds, as the group were semi-aquatic otter-like mammals.^{[2] [3] [4]} In addition to the support of the pinniped–amphicynodontine clade, other morphological and some molecular analyses support bears being the closest living relatives to pinnipeds.^{[5] [6] [7] [3] [8] [4]} According to McKenna and Bell (1997) Amphicynodontinae are classified as stem-pinnipeds in the superfamily Phocoidea.^[9] Fossils of these mammals have been found in Europe, North America and Asia.^[4] Amphicynodontines should not be confused with Amphicyonids (bear-dogs), a separate family of Carnivora which is a sister clade to arctoids within the caniforms, but which may be listed as a clade of extinct arctoids in older publications.

Systematics

• Family †Amphicynodontidae Simpson, 1945
  • †Allocyon Merriam, 1930
    • †Allocyon loganensis Merriam, 1930
  • †Amphicynodon Filhol, 1881
    • †Amphicynodon brachyrostris (Filhol, 1876)
    • †Amphicynodon cephalogalinus Teilhard, 1915
    • †Amphicynodon chardini Cirot and De Bonis, 1992
    • †Amphicynodon crassirostris (Filhol, 1876)
    • †Amphicynodon gracilis (Filhol, 1874)
    • †Amphicynodon leptorhynchus (Filhol, 1874)
    • †Amphicynodon mongoliensis Janovskaja, 1970
    • †Amphicynodon teilhardi Matthew and Granger, 1924
    • †Amphicynodon typicus Schlosser, 1888
    • †Amphicynodon velaunus (Aymard, 1846)
  • †Amphicticeps Matthew and Granger, 1924
    • †Amphicticeps dorog Wang et al., 2005
    • †Amphicticeps makhchinus Wang et al., 2005
    • †Amphicticeps shackelfordi Matthew and Granger, 1924
  • †Drassonax Galbreath, 1953
    • †Drassonax harpagops Galbreath, 1953
  • †Kolponomos Stirton, 1960
    • †Kolponomos clallamensis Stirton, 1960
    • †Kolponomos newportensis Tedford et al., 1994
  • †Pachycynodon Schlosser, 1888
    • †Pachycynodon boriei (Filhol, 1876)
    • †Pachycynodon crassirostris Schlosser, 1888
    • †Pachycynodon filholi Schlosser, 1888
    • †Pachycynodon tenuis Teilhard de Chardin, 1915
  • †Wangictis de Bonis et al., 2019
    • †Wangictis tedfordi (Wang & Qiu, 2003)

Notes and References

1. McLellan . B. . Reiner . D.C. . 1992 . A review of bear evolution . International Association for Bear Research and Management . 9 . 1 . 85–96 . 10.2307/3872687. 3872687 . 91124592 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200219120709/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a5db/fd5dd863f9d68bc07d99e5bea2a4540647ab.pdf . dead . 2020-02-19 .
2. Tedford . R. H. . Richard H. Tedford . Barnes . L. G. . Ray . C. E. . The early Miocene littoral ursoid carnivoran Kolponomos: Systematics and mode of life . 1994 . Proceedings of the San Diego Society of Natural History . 29 . 11–32 . 24 July 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120922142556/http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/pdf1/000389400021705.pdf . 2012-09-22 .
3. Rybczynski. N. . Dawson. M.R. . Tedford. R.H. . 2009 . A semi-aquatic Arctic mammalian carnivore from the Miocene epoch and origin of Pinnipedia . Nature . 458 . 7241 . 1021–24 . 10.1038/nature07985 . 19396145. 2009Natur.458.1021R . 4371413 .
4. Berta. A. . Morgan. C. . Boessenecker. R.W. . 2018 . The Origin and Evolutionary Biology of Pinnipeds: Seals, Sea Lions, and Walruses . Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences . 46 . 203–228 . 10.1146/annurev-earth-082517-010009. 2018AREPS..46..203B . free .
5. Hunt, R. M. Jr. . Barnes, L. G. . 1994. Basicranial evidence for ursid affinity of the oldest pinnipeds. Proceedings of the San Diego Society of Natural History. 29. 57–67. PDF.
6. Lento, G. M. . Hickson, R. E. . Chambers, G. K. . Penny, D. . 1995 . Use of spectral analysis to test hypotheses on the origin of pinnipeds . Molecular Biology and Evolution . 12 . 1 . 28–52 . 7877495 . 10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a040189. free .
7. Wang, X. . McKenna, M. C. . Dashzeveg, D. . Amphicticeps and Amphicynodon (Arctoidea, Carnivora) from Hsanda Gol Formation, central Mongolia and phylogeny of basal arctoids with comments on zoogeography. . 10.1206/0003-0082(2005)483[0001:AAAACF]2.0.CO;2 . American Museum Novitates . 3483 . 216 . 2005. 2246/5674 .
8. Higdon, J. W. . Bininda-Emonds, O. R. . Beck, R. M. . Ferguson, S. H. . Phylogeny and divergence of the pinnipeds (Carnivora: Mammalia) assessed using a multigene dataset . 10.1186/1471-2148-7-216 . BMC Evolutionary Biology . 7 . 216 . 2007 . 17996107 . 2245807 . free .
9. Book: McKenna . M.C. . Bell . S. . 1997 . Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. . Columbia University Press, New York.