As a result of this explosive growth of new information, borophagine systematics is now in need of a complete rethinking at a level that could not have been attempted by previous studies. Largely due to the Childs Frick Collection at the American Museum of Natural History, borophagines are represented by some of the best materials among fossil carnivorans in anatomical representation, sample size, and stratigraphic density. Fossil records of the borophagines are well represented and members of this prolific clade are often the most common predators in the late Tertiary deposits. As a monophyletic group of canids, the Borophaginae is now known to be much more diverse than was originally envisioned but is confined within the middle to late Tertiary of North America. Simpson in 1945 to include seven genera of large, bonecrushing ‘‘dogs’’ in the late Tertiary of the northern continents.

“It is quite rare we find fossils from land animals in this region during this time, but each one provides important information for what life was like then.The subfamily Borophaginae (Canidae, Carnivora, Mammalia) was erected by G. “Most fossils from this time period represent marine animals, who become fossilized more easily than animals on land,” Jasinksi says in the article. wangi is the first carnivore to be discovered in the Choptank Formation and is an unusual find for the period. Wallace, say the coyote-sized dogs likely lived on the eastern coast of North America 12 million years ago and behaved similar to hyenas.Ĭ. Jasinski and his study partner, East Tennessee State University professor and East Tennessee State University National History Museum at the Gray Fossil Site curator Steven C. wangi was originally found under the Choptank Formation in Maryland's Calvert Cliffs region by an amateur collector. Named after the curator of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Xiaoming Wang, C.

Jasinski, a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania and acting curator of paleontology and geology at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, has identified a new species of fossil dog- Cynarctus wangi-according to a Penn News article. Right, Illustration of Cynarctus by Mauricio Anton from 'Dogs, Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History.'Steven E.

Dogs by Xiaoming Wang