''Canis lepophagus'' (Latin: : 'dog'; : 'hare' or 'rabbit'; suffix : '-eating'; hence hare-eating dog) is an extinct

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

canid Canidae (; from Latin, ''canis'', "dog") is a family (biology), biological family of caniform carnivorans, constituting a clade. A member of this family is also called a canid (). The family includes three subfamily, subfamilies: the Caninae, a ...

which was endemic to much of

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during the

Early Pliocene Early may refer to: Places in the United States * Early, Iowa, a city * Early, Texas, a city * Early Branch, a stream in Missouri * Early County, Georgia * Fort Early, Georgia, an early 19th century fort Music * Early B, stage name of Jamaican d ...

. It is notable because its lineage is proposed to have led to both wolves and coyotes.

Evolution

Kurten proposed that the

Blancan The Blancan North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), typically set from 4,750,000 to 1,806,000 years BP, a period of .Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

''Canis'' species in North America. It then became widespread across Eurasia where it was either identical to, or closely related with, '' C. arnensis'' of Europe.

Wang Wang may refer to: Names * Wang (surname) Wang () is the pinyin romanization of Chinese, romanization of the common Chinese surname (''Wáng''). It has a mixture of various origin with uncertain lineage of family history, however it is c ...

proposed a linear progression from ''Eucyon davisi'' to ''C. lepophagus'' to the coyote. Johnston describes ''C. lepophagus'' as having a more slender skull and skeleton than in the modern coyote. Nowak found that the early populations had small, delicate and narrowly proportioned skulls that resemble small coyotes and appear to be ancestral to ''C. latrans''. Johnson noted that some specimens found in Cita Canyon, Texas had larger, broader skulls, and along with other fragments Nowak suggested that these were evolving into wolves. Tedford disagreed with previous authors and found that its cranio-dental morphology lacked some characteristics that are shared by '' C. lupus'' and ''C. latrans'', and therefore there was not a close relationship but it did suggest ''C. lepophagus'' was the ancestor of both wolves and coyotes. Additionally, '' C. edwardii'', ''C. latrans'' and '' C. aureus'' form together a small clade and because ''C. edwardii'' appeared earliest spanning the mid-Blancan (late Pliocene) to the close of the Irvingtonian (late Pleistocene) ''C. edwardii'' is proposed as the descendant of ''C. lepophagus'' and the ancestor of the coyote and the golden jackal.

Fossil distribution

The first fossil record was found in Cita Canyon, Texas. Subsequent discoveries of specimens were found in four other

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sites, Tonuco Mountain,

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, western Washington Santa Fe River, Florida,G. S. Morgan and R. B. Ridgway, Late Pliocene vertebrates from the St. Petersburg Times site, Pinellas County, Florida, ''Papers in Florida Paleontology'', 1987 Black Ranch in northern

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, sites in

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Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, and

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References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5032444 Extinct wolves Prehistoric canines Pleistocene carnivorans Miocene carnivorans Neogene mammals of North America Fossil taxa described in 1938