Ailuridae Gray 1843

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Carnivora, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 532-628 : 628

Ailuridae Gray 1843

Ailuridae Gray 1843 , List Specimens Mamm. Coll. Brit. Mus.: xxi.

Synonyms: Ailurina Gray 1843 ; Ailurinae Trouessart 1885 .

Genera: 1 genus with 1 species:

Genus Ailurus F. G. Cuvier 1825 (1 species with 2 subspecies)

Discussion: Biochemical and molecular evidence has suggested that the enigmatic Ailurus is either (1) intermediate between procyonids and ursids ( O'Brien et al., 1985; Sarich, 1973; Tagle et al., 1986; Wayne et al., 1989; Wurster and Benirschke, 1968); (2) more closely related to ursids than to procyonids (Todd and Pressmann, 1968; Zhang and Shi, 1991); (3) more closely related to procyonids than to ursids ( Goldman et al., 1989; Pecon Slattery and O'Brien, 1995), or, finally; (4) more closely related to mephitids+procyonids ( Bininda-Emonds et al., 1999; Flynn et al., 2000). Morphological studies have pointed out the lack of any shared derived features with the procyonids ( Bugge, 1978; Decker and Wozencraft, 1991; Ginsburg, 1982; Hunt, 1974; Mayr, 1986; Schmidt-Kittler, 1981; Wozencraft, 1989 a, b). Flynn et al. (1988) could not find any unambiguous features to place Ailurus with the procyonids, and only two characters to unite Ailurus with some procyonids, the loss of M 3 (shared also with mustelids) and the presence of a cusp on P 4 on some, but not all procyonids. Wozencraft (1989) found nine shared derived features with the Ursidae , and Decker and Wozencraft (1991) identified six unambiguous shared derived features of the procyonids, all of which are lacking in Ailurus . Flynn et al. (2000) showed strong support for a musteloid clade consisting of Ailurus , Mephitidae , Mustelidae , and Procyonidae . Synonyms allocated according to McKenna and Bell (1997).