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Canis etruscus
Topic Started: Feb 9 2014, 02:05 PM (4,271 Views)
Taipan
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Canis etruscus

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Temporal range: 3.4 Mya

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Genus: Canis
Species:Canis etruscus

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Dog family tree traced back two million years

Monday, 3 February 2014 Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News

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Siberian Husky Puppy 3 months old

A new cache of extremely well preserved, prehistoric canine fossils is shedding light on dog and wolf ancestors from two million years ago to today.

The fossils, described in the latest issue of the Journal of Mammalian Evolution , date to that early period and belonged to a scrappy canine carnivore known as Canis etruscus that lived near Rome, Italy.

"Canis etruscus appeared approximately two million years ago and is the oldest European species referred to in the genus Canis," says lead author Marco Cherin, adding that this species "was considerably smaller than the modern wolf."

"We can suppose that it was a social dog, as most of the living species of similar size," continues Cherin, who is a researcher at Perugia University's Department of Earth Sciences. "Hunting in packs, Canis etruscus could have preyed on small to medium-sized animals."

The prey of this carnivore, which looked like a cross between a German shepherd and a wolf, would have included animals such as ancient relatives of deer and pigs.

This apparent mother of all dogs in Europe likely gave rise to another member of the dog/wolf family tree, Canis mosbachensis, about 1 million years ago. Canis mosbachensis, in turn, is considered to be a direct ancestor of modern wolves.

Dog, wolf common ancestor

Until recently, it was thought that dogs were domesticated from the grey wolf, but a separate study earlier this month countered that popular belief.

"The common ancestor of dogs and wolves was a large, wolf-like animal that lived between 9000 and 34,000 years ago," says Robert Wayne of University of California, Los Angeles, who was co-senior author of the study.

That animal went extinct thousands of years ago and, as of now, remains unknown.

What is known about dog history is that the first canines came from North America, says Cherin. The earliest documented species was Canis lepophagus, aka the "hare-eating wolf." Like the prehistoric canine from Italy, it was relatively small and had a narrow head.

Canines spread to Asia and then to Europe. It was in Eurasia at least 780,000 years ago that a dog relative might have encountered a member of our genus.

Companion or meal?

Eudald Carbonell, a professor at the University of Rovira and Virgili, says fossils of Homo antecessor — an extinct human that looked a lot like us — were found with fossils of Canis mosbachensis in Spain.

Could this very early human have enjoyed the companionship of the dog/wolf relative, or was the latter considered to be good eats or a predator? The fossil record so far, unfortunately, does not have those answers.

Carbonell and his team did find evidence for cannibalism — for nutritional purposes — among Homo antecessor individuals, so it's likely that this early, hungry human hunted the dog and wolf relative.

As the human population continued to expand and evolve in Europe and Asia, people discovered how valuable canines could be for security, hunting, companionship and more, resulting over time in the domestication of dogs.

That moment of doggy revelation might have even happened in Italy, since recent DNA evidence suggests the first domesticated dogs were from Europe.

Marina Sotnikova of the Geological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences says the fossils discovered in Italy are "very interesting" and "allow for a more detailed study of this group of carnivores."

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/02/03/3937080.htm




Re-Defining Canis etruscus (Canidae, Mammalia): A New Look into the Evolutionary History of Early Pleistocene Dogs Resulting from the Outstanding Fossil Record from Pantalla (Italy)

Marco Cherin, Davide F. Bertè, Lorenzo Rook, Raffaele Sardella
Journal of Mammalian Evolution
March 2014, Volume 21, Issue 1, pp 95-110

Abstract
An outstanding sample of Canis etruscus has been found within the faunal assemblage from the early Pleistocene site of Pantalla (Italy), which is referred to the early late Villafranchian. Canis etruscus appeared in Europe about 2 Ma ago. It is regarded as an important taxon for biochronology, as its first occurrence (the “wolf event”) has been used to define one of the Villafranchian faunal turnovers. The discovery of four crania from Pantalla prompted a revision of C. etruscus, in order to better describe its cranial morphology. Since early studies, the distinction between C. etruscus and the coeval C. arnensis has been based mainly on mandibular traits. For this reason, our study is aimed at highlighting differences in craniodental characters between the two species. Canis arnensis has been conventionally considered a jackal-like dog, while C. etruscus is regarded as a wolf-like dog. Consequently, we decided to use jackals for comparison, in addition to C. lupus. Although the jackal group has been traditionally considered as quite homogenous (different species are partially sympatric and similar in both size and ecology), recent genetic studies demonstrate that jackals are not monophyletic. Considering the model offered by extant species, our goal is to delineate the degree of intra- and interspecific variability among the basal forms of the genus Canis.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10914-013-9227-4#





Canis etruscus (Canidae, Mammalia) and its role in the faunal assemblage from Pantalla (Perugia, central Italy): comparison with the Late Villafranchian large carnivore guild of Italy

Marco Cherin, Davide Federico Bertè, Raffaele Sardella & Lorenzo Rook
Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana, 52 (1), 2013, 11-18. Modena
ISSN 0375-7633 doi:10.4435/BSPI.2013.05

ABSTRACT - A very rich faunal assemblage referred to the early Late Villafranchian (Olivola/Tasso Faunal Unit) has been found at the
Early Pleistocene site of Pantalla (Perugia, central Italy). The assemblage contains a number of carnivores, including several specimens of the Etruscan wolf Canis etruscus Forsyth Major, 1877. Canis etruscus appeared in Europe about 2 Ma. This species is regarded as an important taxon for biochronology: its first occurrence (the so-called “wolf event”) has been used to define one of the Villafranchian faunal turnovers. The Late Villafranchian assemblage from Pantalla provides valuable information about the Early Pleistocene carnivore guild in Italy. Together with the Etruscan wolf (probably a cooperative species hunting in packs) and Vulpes sp., the Pantalla faunal assemblage also records the occurrence of two felids, Lynx issiodorensis (Croizet & Jobert, 1828) and the giant cheetah Acinonyx pardinensis (Croizet & Jobert, 1828). Despite the excellent preservation and richness of fossils discovered, the Pantalla fauna seems to lack some important elements of the Late Villafranchian carnivore paleoguild, possibly reflecting a reduced biomass and/or diversity of preys in respect to other Italian sites.


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Edited by Taipan, Feb 15 2014, 02:57 PM.
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