Phylogenetic Systematics, Biochronology, and Evolution of Borophaginae (Carnivora: Canidae)

小行星9420004 研究人员将研究大量保存完好的食草犬科动物化石，即现存犬科动物（狗、狼、狐狸和豺）的远亲，以确定它们的进化关系、起源和灭绝模式以及它们在生物群落中的生态作用。 %%% 生活在过去的200万至3000万年在北美第三纪，食borophagines代表了一个大型的食肉动物群体，超过66个物种，并表现出生态多样性远远大于他们的现代犬科亲戚，从小型的杂食动物，如活浣熊到极端的权力捕食者/食腐动物，如活鬣狗。 这项研究的结果将揭示一组食肉动物的进化历史，这些食肉动物在同时代的捕食性哺乳动物中发挥了主导作用，从而帮助塑造了过去3000万年来的脊椎动物群落。 ***

9420004 Wang The PIs will study abundantly and exquisitely preserved fossil borophagine canids, distant relatives of living canines (dogs, wolves, foxes, and jackals) to determine their evolutionary relationships, patterns of origination and extinction and their ecologic role in the biological community. %%% Living in the last 2-30 million years in the North American Tertiary, borophagines represent a large group of carnivores with over 66 species and exhibit an ecological diversity much greater than their modern canine relatives ranging from small ominivores like living raccoons to extremely power predators/scavengers like living hyena. Results of this study will shed light on the evolutionary history of a group of carnivores that played dominant roles among their contemporaneous predatory mammals and thus helped shape the vertebrate community over the last 30 million years. ***