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The Plio-Pleistocene ancestor of wild dogs, Lycaon sekowei n. sp.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Adam Hartstone-Rose ,
Lars Werdelin ,
Darryl J. De Ruiter ,
Lee R. Berger  and
Steven E. Churchill
Adam Hartstone-Rose
Affiliation:
1Pennsylvania State University, 205 Hawthorn, 3000 Ivy Side Park, Altoona, 16601
Lars Werdelin
Affiliation:
2Department of Palaeozoology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden
Darryl J. De Ruiter
Affiliation:
3Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, 77843
Lee R. Berger
Affiliation:
4Institute for Human Origins, Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontology, School of GeoSciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa 2050
Steven E. Churchill
Affiliation:
5Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Box 90383, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708
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Abstract

African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) occupy an ecological niche characterized by hypercarnivory and cursorial hunting. Previous interpretations drawn from a limited, mostly Eurasian fossil record suggest that the evolutionary shift to cursorial hunting preceded the emergence of hypercarnivory in the Lycaon lineage. Here we describe 1.9—1.0 ma fossils from two South African sites representing a putative ancestor of the wild dog. the holotype is a nearly complete maxilla from Coopers Cave, and another specimen tentatively assigned to the new taxon, from Gladysvale, is the most nearly complete mammalian skeleton ever described from the Sterkfontein Valley, Gauteng, South Africa. the canid represented by these fossils is larger and more robust than are any of the other fossil or extant sub-Saharan canids. Unlike other purported L. pictus ancestors, it has distinct accessory cusps on its premolars and anterior accessory cuspids on its lower premolars—a trait unique to Lycaon among living canids. However, another hallmark autapomorphy of L. pictus, the tetradactyl manus, is not found in the new species; the Gladysvale skeleton includes a large first metacarpal. Thus, the anatomy of this new early member of the Lycaon branch suggests that, contrary to previous hypotheses, dietary specialization appears to have preceded cursorial hunting in the evolution of the Lycaon lineage. We assign these specimens to the taxon Lycaon sekowei n. sp.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 84 , Issue 2 , March 2010 , pp. 299 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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