Simocyoninae is an extinct subfamily of Ailuridae (of which the only recent member is the red panda).[1] The taxonomic history of this group was complicated, as researchers placed various fossil caniform genera into the subfamily. In addition to Simocyon, there was also Oligobunis (an early mustelid), Cephalogale (a stem-bear), and Enhydrocyon (a hesperocyonine canid). This subfamily was initially classified within the Canidae or dog family. This idea went even further in 1910 when American paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn considered dholes, African wild dogs, and bush dogs to be the only extant representation left of the simocyonines. This was in large part to the overall similarity in the morphology of their molars, which suggested a shared ancestry of hypercarnivory. This view point was not supported by European paleontologists who believed that Simocyon was more closely related to musteloids. Soon the Simocyoninae were found as extinct subfamily of procyonids, or members of the raccoon-family, due to similarity of the basicranium of these animals. This was supported by subsequent researchers. It was not until a more completed skull of a Simocyon found in north Shaanxi, China was described by Wang (1997) who found that Simocyoninae is closely related Ailurinae on the basis of cranial and dental characteristics.[2]
Characteristics of the simocyonines that differentiate them from the ailurines are highly specialize premolars that enabled them to crush bone. This suggests the simocyonines were either specialized bone-crushing carnivorans like hyenas or were at least able to digest bone in their diet when consuming whole small animal prey. However it was not as fully developed as the aforementioned hyenas.[3]
^Wang, X. (1997). "New cranial material of Simocyon from China, and its implications for phylogenetic relationship to the red panda (Ailurus)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 17 (1): 184–198. doi:10.1080/02724634.1997.10010963.
^Peigné, S.; Salesa, M. J.; Antón, M.; Morales, J. (2005). "Ailurid carnivoran mammal Simocyon from the late Miocene of Spain and the systematics of the genus". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 50 (2): 219–238.
Simocyoninae is an extinct subfamily of Ailuridae (of which the only recent member is the red panda). The taxonomic history of this group was complicated...
genera, most of which are assigned to three subfamilies: Amphictinae, Simocyoninae, and Ailurinae. Family Ailuridae J.E. Gray, 1843 Subfamily †Amphictinae ...
Alopecocyon is a fossil genus of ailurid belonging to the subfamily Simocyoninae. It has two species, Alopecocyon goeriachensis and Alopecocyon getti....
being split back into Protursus, though as a member of the subfamily Simocyoninae. Protursus simpsoni is known from only a single specimen, a left m2 found...
African wild dog, the dhole and the bush dog together in the subfamily Simocyoninae on the basis of all three species having similarly trenchant carnassials...
although it is different enough to be classified in a separate subfamily (Simocyoninae) along with related genera Alopecocyon and Actiocyon. While the red panda...
among the Canidae. George Simpson placed the dhole in the subfamily Simocyoninae alongside the African wild dog and the bush dog, on account of all three...
wintershofensis–to–A. cuspida being closer to the ancestry of the now extinct Simocyoninae (with A. wintershofensis being the sister taxon to the clade). This is...
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