Speothos Lund 1839

Abstract

SPEOTHOS Speothos venaticus is grouped as a sister taxon to Atelocynus (Berta, 1988; Tedford et al., 1995), to Cerdocyon and Atelocynus (Langguth, 1969, 1970) or to Chrysocyon (Wayne et al., 1997). The frontal pole in Speothos and Atelocynus is massive, which is not seen in the other dog-like species (Fig. 7). The proreal gyrus is broad in both, and the coronal sulci create an orthogonal outline, which is similar to Canis. These features clearly distinguish them from all other South American canids, and supports Berta’s (1988) and Tedford et al.’s (1995) hypothesis.Published as part of Lyras, George A. & Van Der Geer, Alexandra A. E., 2003, External brain anatomy in relation to the phylogeny of Caninae (Carnivora: Canidae), pp. 505-522 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 138 (4) on page 519, DOI: 10.1046/j.1096-3642.2003.00067.x, http://zenodo.org/record/543786