''Nothocyon'' ("spurious dog") is an extinct genus of

carnivora Carnivora ( ) is an order of placental mammals specialized primarily in eating flesh, whose members are formally referred to as carnivorans. The order Carnivora is the sixth largest order of mammals, comprising at least 279 species. Carnivor ...

n in the family Subparictidae which inhabited

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

during the late

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

. At one time, many species of the

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Canidae 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 ...

were placed in ''Nothocyon'', but new fossils showed that the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of ''Nothocyon'', ''N. geismarianus'', is more closely related to

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

s. The other species have been reassigned to other genera such as ''

Cormocyon ''Cormocyon'' is an extinct genus of borophagine canid native to North America. It lived from the Oligocene to the Early Miocene The Early Miocene (also known as Lower Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of tw ...

''.

Taxonomy & Evolution

The species ''

Canis ''Canis'' is a genus of the Caninae which includes multiple extant taxon, extant species, such as Wolf, wolves, dogs, coyotes, and golden jackals. Species of this genus are distinguished by their moderate to large size, their massive, well-develo ...

geismarianus'' was originally described by

Edward Drinker Cope Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontology, paleontologist, comparative anatomy, comparative anatomist, herpetology, herpetologist, and ichthyology, ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker fam ...

in 1878, based on a jaw fragment with a single m1 that came from the

John Day Formation The John Day Formation is a series of rock strata exposed in the Picture Gorge district of the John Day River basin and elsewhere in north-central Oregon in the United States. The Picture Gorge exposure lies east of the Blue Mountains (Oregon), ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. The specific epithet ''geismarianus'' was given in honor of the naturalist Jacob Geismar. He assigned further material to the species and reassigned it to the genus '' Galecynus'' in 1881, and described yet more material in 1883, which became the focus in studies on the species. In 1884, Cope re-illustrated most of the material assigned to ''N. geismarianus'' and established the original material described, AMNH 6884, as the holotype, though he did not illustrate it. He later reassigned the species once again, this time to the genus ''

Cynodictis ''Cynodictis'' ("slender dog marten") is an extinct amphicyonid carnivoran which inhabited Eurasia from the Late Eocene subepoch to the Early Oligocene subepoch living from 37.2 to 28.4 million years ago, existing for approximately . Anatomy '' ...

''. It was considered a borophagine

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 ...

and was assigned to a new genus ''Nothocyon'' by Wortman and Matthew in 1899, along with two other small canid species from the John Day Formation (''N. latidens'' and ''N. lemur'', which had both been previously assigned to the genera ''Galecynus'' and then ''Cynodictis'') and two living species from South America (''N. urostictus'' and ''N. parvidens'', both formerly assigned to the genus ''Canis'', and now considered synonyms of ''

Lycalopex vetulus The hoary fox or hoary zorro (''Lycalopex vetulus''), also known as ''raposinha-do-campo'' in Brazil ( Portuguese for "little fox of the meadow"), is a species of zorro or "false" fox endemic to Brazil. Unlike many other foxes, it feeds primaril ...

''). Yet another species, ''Nothocyon regulus'', was described in 1962. However, in 1992, a thorough re-description of the holotype was published by Wang & Tedford, who matched it with associated upper and lower teeth from the same locality, and re-assigned the 1881 and 1883 canid material to the species ''

copei'', and placing ''Nothocyon geismarianus'' as a stem arctoid. A further study in 1999 reassigned ''Nothocyon lemur'' and ''N. roii'' to '' Cynarctoides'', ''N. latidens'' and ''N. annectens'' to ''

Phlaocyon ''Phlaocyon'' (from Greek ''phlao'', "eat greedily" and ''cyon'', "dog") is an extinct genus of the Borophaginae subfamily of canids native to North America. It lives from the Early Oligocene to the Early Miocene epoch 33.3–16.3 Mya, existing ...

'', ''N. regulus'' as a synonym of '' Desmocyon thomsoni''. Another two species assigned at one time to ''Nothocyon'', ''"N." gregorii'' and ''"N." vulpinus'', and the variant ''N. geismarianus'' var ''mollis'', have been reassigned to the genus ''

Leptocyon The genus ''Leptocyon'' (Greek: ''leptos'' slender + ''cyon'' dog) includes 11 species and was the first canine. They were small and weighed around . They first appeared in North America around 34 million years ago in the Oligocene, at the same ...

''. The genus ''Nothocyon'' was assigned to the family Subparictidae in 2023.

Paleobiology

''N. geismarianus'' is known from localities dating back to the Late

Arikareean The Arikareean 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 30,600,000 to 20,800,000 years BP, a period of . It is usuall ...

and possibly the early

Hemingfordian The Hemingfordian on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), typically set from 20,600,000 to 16,300,000 years BP. It is usually considered to overlap the lates ...

of Oregon.

References

Subparictidae Oligocene caniforms Oligocene mammals of North America Monotypic prehistoric carnivoran genera {{paleo-carnivora-stub