Read the Beforeitsnews.com story here. Advertise at Before It's News here.
Profile image
By Alton Parrish (Reporter)
Contributor profile | More stories
Story Views
Now:
Last hour:
Last 24 hours:
Total:

Mysterious Texas Beardog Identified: The Size of a Chihauhua, Related To Bears, Dogs, Raccoons and More

% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.


From unknown to beardog: new findings rescue mystery fossils from “trashbin” genus and identify them as early members of the beardog family or Amphicyonidae. Amphicyonids were as small as 5 lb and as large as 220 to 1,320 lb and evolved from wolf-like to bear-like.

CT scans of a 37-million-year-old skull fossil reveal a clearer picture of two very small, primitive species of a dog relative

Large, ferocious-looking animals called beardogs — neither bears nor dogs – roamed the northern hemisphere between about 40 and 5 million years ago.

But because so little data on their earliest members are available, their evolutionary relationships or phylogeny – and their place on the tree of life – has remained unclear.

Artist’s reconstruction of an early (ca. 38 million year-old) beardog from Texas, based on fossils of Angelarctocyon australis and Gustafsonia cognita

Credit: Monica Jurik, The Field Museum

A new study published Oct. 11, 2016 in Royal Society Open Science and based on improved phylogenetic analysis and advanced computed tomography (CT) scanning has changed that. The research identifies two fossils previously thought to be generic carnivorans (a large, diverse order of mammals) as some of the earliest known members of the beardog family. These fossils are from animals estimated to be no larger than about five pounds, roughly the size of a Chihuahua and much smaller than formidable descendants that would later evolve.

The work reveals that while evidence of beardogs has been found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, they may have originated or initially diversified in parts of what is now the southwestern U.S.

“Our research pinpoints the southwestern US as a key region in understanding the diversification and proliferation of this once successful group of predators prior to their extinction millions of years ago,” said study coauthor Jack Tseng, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo.

The evolutionary roots of beardogs

First described back in 1986, fossils found in Texas of animals believed to be less than 5 pounds were originally assigned to the genus Miacis, a kind of “miscellaneous” category for early carnivores, based primarily on external features.

“It was the best that could be done at the time,” said Tseng, who did the work as a postdoctoral fellow at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Susumu Tomiya, PhD, postdoctoral scholar at The Field Museum in Chicago, is lead author on the paper.

According to Tseng, the early anatomists based their hypothesis on superficial features like the shapes of the teeth and the locations of cranial openings where the blood vessels and nerves radiate from the brain and other external characteristics, assigning it to the genus Miacis.

“It’s a kind of ‘trashbin’ genus, when the question is, well, what else could it be?” Tseng explained. “Now we’ve taken these fossils out of the trashbin and put them at the base of the beardog tree.

Skeleton of Amphicyon ingens, a bear-dog
Credit: Wikipedia
“We’re not saying we’ve solved where they fit on the tree of life, but it’s the most progress that’s been made in quite awhile. Our work provides a clearer connection between the rest of the beardog family and their evolutionary roots.”

A mysterious museum specimen

Tomiya decided to study the fossils when he ‘stumbled’ upon one of the specimens in the Field Museum collection.

“I thought it looked odd and too advanced for what it had been claimed to be — a more primitive carnivore,” said Tomiya. “It reminded me of some much larger beardogs so I decided to take a closer look.”

That closer look included tapping Tseng’s expertise with high resolution X ray CT 3D reconstructions of the intracranial anatomy of the fossils. While CT scans of the skull already existed, Tseng conducted a much more detailed and time-consuming analysis through more than 1000 slices of CT scans of the skull. Adding to the difficulty of examining a very small skull — the whole animal was no larger than a Chihuahua — was the fact that the spaces inside the skull were still filled with rock.

Twenty years earlier, Tseng’s PhD advisor, Xiaoming Wang of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, had speculated that based on what could be seen externally, this animal was likely related to beardogs, and may have had a deep embayment — a bone-enclosed space — in the region of its ear.

“The development of that feature is characteristic of beardogs,” said Tseng, “and it turns out that that actually is the case for the skull previously assigned to Miacis.”

According to Tseng, the ear is very important in understanding mammalian evolution. “The ear can be used to calibrate how species are related,” he said, noting that in other collaborative research, he is studying the ear’s bony labyrinth, whose shape may be correlated to the kinds of movements an animal can make.

Tomiya’s work conducting rigorous cladistic analyses (classification according to shared features) involved updating the taxonomy of these animals and their evolutionary relationships based on new phylogenetic affinities— in other words, how the beardogs may be related to other carnivores that exist today, such as dogs, bears, raccoons and others.

Amphicyonids began to decline in the late Miocene, and largely disappeared in the Pliocene; the reasons for this are unclear, with the most blamed factor being competition with other carnivorans, though no direct evidence for this has been found. The youngest known amphicyonid remains are teeth known from the Dhok Pathan horizon, northern Pakistan, dating to the early Pleistocene, classically named Arctamphicyon lydekkeri, which may actually be synonymous with/a species of Amphicyon.

Contacts and sources:
University of Buffalo


Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com/2016/10/mysterious-texas-beardog-identified.html


Before It’s News® is a community of individuals who report on what’s going on around them, from all around the world.

Anyone can join.
Anyone can contribute.
Anyone can become informed about their world.

"United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.

Please Help Support BeforeitsNews by trying our Natural Health Products below!


Order by Phone at 888-809-8385 or online at https://mitocopper.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST

Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomic.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST

Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomics.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST


Humic & Fulvic Trace Minerals Complex - Nature's most important supplement! Vivid Dreams again!

HNEX HydroNano EXtracellular Water - Improve immune system health and reduce inflammation.

Ultimate Clinical Potency Curcumin - Natural pain relief, reduce inflammation and so much more.

MitoCopper - Bioavailable Copper destroys pathogens and gives you more energy. (See Blood Video)

Oxy Powder - Natural Colon Cleanser!  Cleans out toxic buildup with oxygen!

Nascent Iodine - Promotes detoxification, mental focus and thyroid health.

Smart Meter Cover -  Reduces Smart Meter radiation by 96%! (See Video).

Report abuse

    Comments

    Your Comments
    Question   Razz  Sad   Evil  Exclaim  Smile  Redface  Biggrin  Surprised  Eek   Confused   Cool  LOL   Mad   Twisted  Rolleyes   Wink  Idea  Arrow  Neutral  Cry   Mr. Green

    MOST RECENT
    Load more ...

    SignUp

    Login

    Newsletter

    Email this story
    Email this story

    If you really want to ban this commenter, please write down the reason:

    If you really want to disable all recommended stories, click on OK button. After that, you will be redirect to your options page.