Dusicyon H[amilton], Smith, 1839

W. Christopher Wozencraft, 1993, Order Carnivora, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 279-348 : 283

Dusicyon H[amilton], Smith, 1839 . Jardine's Natur. Libr., 9:248.

TYPE SPECIES: Cam's antarcticus Bechstein, 1799 (= C. australis Kerr, 1792 ), by subsequent designation by Cabrera (1931).

COMMENTS: There has been general disagreement as to generic classification of the South American canids, with most of the disagreement centered on the species australis , culpaeus , griseus , gymnocercus , microtis , sechurae , thous , and vetulus . Van Gelder (1978) proposed placing these taxa into Canis and giving only subgeneric recognition. The other extreme is best represented by Cabrera (1931) who recognized 5 genera for this group. Langguth (1969) first followed Cabrera's classification, but later (1975) decided to group most taxa into Canis , because he felt differences were not sufficient to warrant generic distinctions. The phenetic approaches of Clutton-Brock et al. (1976) and Wayne and O'Brien (1987) confirmed the close similarities of these taxa. Berta's (1987, 1988) phylogenetic hypothesis is followed here.