Phylogeny of the Caninae (Carnivora, Canidae)

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"Fifty-seven characters of the skull, mandible, dentition, and postcranium distributed among 122 character states obtained from specimens representing 15 living genera of the canid subfamily Caninae (67% of which are monotypic) were subjected to cladistic analysis assisted by a maximum-parsimony computer program (HENNIG86). The program found a single tree, 90 steps in length with a consistency index of 65 and retention index of 78. The reconstruction delineates two sister taxa: the foxlike tribe Vulpini, and the wolflike and South American taxa, tribe Canini. This division is also supported by karyological and biomolecular studies although the composition of each group varies with the evidence used. The osteological evidence leads to a more fully resolved relationship than presently available from other systems. Problem taxa include the foxes Urocyon and Otocyon, considered sister taxa, and members of the Vulpini clade osteologically, but either as members of the Canini clade (with Fennecus) on chromosome morphology or in a basal unresolved multichotomy with other canines on allozyme evidence. More contentious is the position of the Asian raccoon-dog Nyctereutes, placed as a sister taxon of the South American crab-eating 'fox' Cerdocyon in our analysis but allied with Vulpes on karyological evidence or a part of the basal canine multichotomy with regard to the allozyme results. The South American bush-dog Speothos, a hypercarnivore, is placed on osteological grounds in a clade with the rest of the South American genera in agreement with chromosome evidence although allozymes relate it to the Canis group. Despite these individual cases there is reasonable concordance in the conclusions drawn from the three lines of phyletic inference. Previous neontological and paleontological studies of canines have not clarified relationships within this group"--P. [1].

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