Speothos, Lund, 1839

Lyras, George A. & Van Der Geer, Alexandra A. E., 2003, External brain anatomy in relation to the phylogeny of Caninae (Carnivora: Canidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 138 (4), pp. 505-522 : 519

SPEOTHOS

Speothos venaticus is grouped as a sister taxon to Atelocynus ( Berta, 1988; Tedford et al., 1995), to Cerdocyon and Atelocynus ( Langguth, 1969, 1970) or to Chrysocyon ( Wayne et al., 1997) .

The frontal pole in Speothos and Atelocynus is massive, which is not seen in the other dog-like species ( Fig. 7 ). The proreal gyrus is broad in both, and the coronal sulci create an orthogonal outline, which is similar to Canis . These features clearly distinguish them from all other South American canids, and supports Berta’s (1988) and Tedford et al.’s (1995) hypothesis.

Figures

Figure 7. Endocasts from Chrysocyon, Speothos, Atelocynus and the recently extinct †Dusicyon australis, dorsal and lateral views.