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Mececyon
''Mececyon trinilensis'', the Trinil dog, is an extinct canid species that lived on the island of Java in Indonesia during the Pleistocene. Description The body size of ''Mececyon trinilensis'' been estimated at around , comparable to a dhole. This small size is the result of insular dwarfism. Habitat and ecology ''Mececyon trinilensis'' is endemic to the island of Java. It was part of the Pleistocene Trinil Fauna of Java, which dates to the late Early-Middle Pleistocene. Other animals of this Faunal assemblage were ''Bos palaesondaicus'', the Indian muntjak (''Muntiacus muntjak''), '' Bubalus paleaeokerabau'', the Dubois santeng and ''Stegodon trigonocephalus''. Other predators of the Trinil Fauna were the Trinil tiger (''Panthera tigris trinilensis'') and the leopard cat (''Prionailurus bengalensis'').Christine Hertler/ Yan Rizal (2005): Excursion guide to the Pleistocene Hominid Sites in Central and East Java, Johann Wolfgang Geothe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Ger ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dubois Santeng
''Duboisia santeng'' or Dubois' antelope is an extinct antelope-like bovid that was endemic to Indonesia during the Pleistocene. It went extinct during the Ionian stage of the Pleistocene, about 750.000 years ago. ''Duboisia santeng'' was first described by the Dutch paleoanthropologist and geologist Eugène Dubois in 1891.Christine Hertler/ Yan Rizal (2005): Excursion guide to the Pleistocene Hominid sites in Central and East Java, JW Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany/ ITB, Bandung, Indonesia The species is most closely related to the modern Nilgai-antelope (''Boselaphus tragocamelus'') and the Four-horned antelope (''Tetracerus quadricornis''). ''Antilope modjokertensis'' is a junior synonym for ''Duboisia santeng''.Fossil Bovidae from the Malay archipelago and the Punjab by Dr. D. A. Hooijer, Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden Description It was a small to middle-sized antelope, with body mass estimates ranging from 32 kg to 84 kg, with an average valu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insular Dwarfism
Insular dwarfism, a form of phyletic dwarfism, is the process and condition of large animals evolving or having a reduced body size when their population's range is limited to a small environment, primarily islands. This natural process is distinct from the intentional creation of dwarf breeds, called dwarfing. This process has occurred many times throughout evolutionary history, with examples including various species of Dwarf elephant, dwarf elephants that evolved during the Pleistocene epoch, as well as more ancient examples, such as the dinosaurs ''Europasaurus'' and ''Magyarosaurus''. This process, and other "island genetics" artifacts, can occur not only on islands, but also in other situations where an ecosystem is isolated from external resources and breeding. This can include caves, desert oases, isolated valleys and isolated mountains ("sky islands"). Insular dwarfism is one aspect of the more general Foster's rule, "island effect" or "Foster's rule", which posits that w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megacyon Merriami
''Megacyon merriami'', or Merriam's dog, was a prehistoric canid that lived on the island of Java in Indonesia during the Early Pleistocene. Its scientific name means "Merriam's large dog". Description ''Megacyon'' was relatively larged sized, with an estimated body mass of around , comparable to a grey wolf. In comparison to its ancestor ''Xenocyon'', the hypocone on the teeth was larger. Ecology ''Megacyon'' is thought to have been a hypercarnivore that preyed on large-sized prey such as deer. Taxonomy and evolution ''Megacyon'' is thought to have evolved from mainland species of ''Xenocyon,'' with ''Megacyon'' being even larger than mainland ''Xenocyon'' species. Some authors have subsumed ''Megacyon'' into ''Xenocyon''. ''Megacyon'' is thought to be the ancestor of the much smaller ''Mececyon ''Mececyon trinilensis'', the Trinil dog, is an extinct canid species that lived on the island of Java in Indonesia during the Pleistocene. Description The body size of ''Mece ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xenocyon
''Xenocyon'' ("strange dog") is an extinct group of canids, either considered a distinct genus or a subgenus of ''Canis''. The group includes ''Canis'' (''Xenocyon'') ''africanus'', ''Canis'' (''Xenocyon'') ''antonii'' and ''Canis'' (''Xenocyon'') ''falconeri'' that gave rise to ''Canis'' (''Xenocyon'') ''lycanoides''. The hypercarnivorous ''Xenocyon'' is thought to be closely related and possibly ancestral to modern dhole and the African wild dog, as well as the insular Sardinian dhole. Taxonomy ''Xenocyon'' is proposed as a subgenus of ''Canis'' named ''Canis'' (''Xenocyon''). One taxonomic authority proposes that as part of this subgenus, the group named ''Canis'' (''Xenocyon'') ex gr. ''falconeri'' (ex gr. meaning "of the group including") would include all of the large hypercarnivorous canids that inhabited the Old World during the Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene: ''Canis'' (''Xenocyon'') ''africanus'' in Africa, ''Canis'' (''Xenocyon'') ''antonii'' in Asia and ''Canis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in 2009 by the International Union of Geological Sciences, the cutoff of the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene was regarded as being 1.806 million years Before Present (BP). Publications from earlier years may use either definition of the period. The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period and also with the end of the Paleolithic age used in archaeology. The name is a combination of Ancient Greek () 'most' and (; Latinized as ) 'new'. The aridification and cooling trends of the preceding Neogene were continued in the Pleistocene. The climate was strongly variable depending on the glacial cycle, oscillating between cold Glacial period, glacial periods and warmer Interglacial, int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prehistoric Canines
Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of symbols, marks, and images appears very early among humans, but the earliest known writing systems appeared years ago. It took thousands of years for writing systems to be widely adopted, with writing having spread to almost all cultures by the 19th century. The end of prehistory therefore came at different times in different places, and the term is less often used in discussing societies where prehistory ended relatively recently. It is based on an old conception of history that without written records there could be no history. The most common conception today is that history is based on evidence, however the concept of prehistory hasn't been completely discarded. In the early Bronze Age, Sumer in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley Civilis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African Wild Dog
The African wild dog (''Lycaon pictus''), also called painted dog and Cape hunting dog, is a wild canine native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest wild canine in Africa, and the only extant member of the genus '' Lycaon'', which is distinguished from ''Canis'' by dentition highly specialised for a hypercarnivorous diet and by a lack of dewclaws. It is estimated that there are around 6,600 adults (including 1,400 mature individuals) living in 39 subpopulations, all threatened by habitat fragmentation, human persecution and outbreaks of disease. As the largest subpopulation probably consists of fewer than 250 individuals, the African wild dog has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1990. The African wild dog is a specialized hunter of terrestrial ungulates, mostly hunting at dawn and dusk, but also displays diurnal activity. It captures its prey by using stamina and cooperative hunting to exhaust them. Its natural competitors are lions and spotted hyenas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sardinian Dhole
The Sardinian dhole (genus ''Cynotherium'' especially ''C. sardous'') is an extinct insular canid which was endemic to what is now the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica during the Middle-Late Pleistocene. It went extinct at the end of the Pleistocene around the time of human settlement of the islands. Its scientific name means "dog-beast of Sardinia", the genus name from the and and the specific name from the , alt. form of . Around the size of a jackal, morphological studies indicate it was a specialised stalking predator of small mammals and birds, with a probable preference for the endemic Sardinian pika. Evolution The oldest remains of ''Cynotherium'' on Sardinia date to around the early-Middle Pleistocene transition around 800,000 years ago, associated with a faunal turnover event on Sardinia likely caused low sea levels allowing dispersal to Sardinia-Corsica from mainland Italy. ''Cynotherium'' is suggested to have originated from the species '' Xenocyon l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hypercarnivore
A hypercarnivore is an animal that has a diet that is more than 70% meat, either via active predation or by scavenging. The remaining non-meat diet may consist of non-animal foods such as fungi, fruits or other plant material. Some extant examples of hypercarnivorous animals include crocodilians, owls, shrikes, eagles, vultures, felids, most wild canids, polar bear, odontocetid cetaceans (toothed whales), snakes, spiders, scorpions, mantises, marlins, groupers, piranhas and most sharks. Every species in the family Felidae, including the domesticated cat, is a hypercarnivore in its natural state. Additionally, this term is also used in paleobiology to describe taxa of animals which have an increased slicing component of their dentition relative to the grinding component. In domestic settings, e.g. cats may have a diet derived from only plant and synthetic sources using modern processing methods. Feeding farmed animals such as alligators and crocodiles mostly or fully plan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leopard Cat
The leopard cat (''Prionailurus bengalensis'') is a Felinae, small wild cat native to continental South Asia, South, Southeast Asia, Southeast, and East Asia. Since 2002 it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List as it is widely distributed although threatened by habitat loss and hunting in parts of its range. Historically, the leopard cat of continental Asia was considered the same species as the Sunda leopard cat. As of 2017, the latter is recognised as a distinct species, with the Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic name ''Prionailurus javanensis''. Leopard cat subspecies differ widely in fur colour, tail length, skull shape and size of carnassials. Archaeological evidence indicates that the leopard cat was the first cat species domesticated in Neolithic China about 5,000 years ago in Shaanxi province, Shaanxi and Henan Provinces. Characteristics A leopard cat is about the size of a domestic cat, but more slender, with longer legs and well-defined webs between i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trinil Tiger
''Panthera tigris trinilensis'', known as the Trinil tiger, is an extinct tiger subspecies dating from about 1.2 million years ago that was found at the locality of Trinil, Java, Indonesia. The fossil remains are now stored in the Dubois Collection of the National Museum of Natural History in Leiden, the Netherlands. Although these fossils have been found on Java, the Trinil tiger is probably not a direct ancestor of the Javan tiger. The fossils are also an evidence that these tigers had large bodies. Their competitor's may have preyed on same individuals which resulted in limiting resources and food competition leading to extinction. The Trinil tiger probably became extinct 50,000 years ago. The Bali tiger was also not closely related to the Trinil because of their time differences. It lived in Indonesia, particularly in Java and Trinil, and according to some zoologists, it could be the ancestor of all known Indonesian subspecies. Perhaps, East Asia was a center of the origin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stegodon
''Stegodon'' (from the Ancient Greek στέγω (''stégō''), meaning "to cover", and ὀδούς (''odoús''), meaning "tooth", named for the distinctive ridges on the animal's molars) is an extinct genus of proboscidean, related to elephants. It was originally assigned to the family Elephantidae along with modern elephants but is now placed in the extinct family Stegodontidae. Like elephants, ''Stegodon'' had teeth with plate-like lophs that are different from those of more primitive proboscideans like gomphotheres and mammutids. Fossils of the genus are known from Africa and across much of Asia, as far southeast as Timor (with a single record in southeast Europe). The oldest fossils of the genus are found in Late Miocene strata in Asia, likely originating from the more archaic ''Stegolophodon,'' subsequently migrating into Africa. While the genus became extinct in Africa during the Pliocene, ''Stegodon'' persisted in South, Southeast and Eastern Asia into the Late Pleisto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
