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

[94][20004]研究小组将对现存犬科动物（狗、狼、狐狸和豺狼）的远亲——大量保存完好的化石——进行研究，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。生活在北美第三纪2-3千万年前的掠食性动物代表了一个庞大的食肉动物群体，有超过66个物种，其生态多样性远远超过它们的现代犬科亲戚，从小型的杂食动物，如现在的浣熊，到极其强大的捕食者/食腐动物，如现在的鬣狗。这项研究的结果将揭示一群食肉动物的进化史，它们在同时期的掠食性哺乳动物中起着主导作用，从而在过去3000万年中帮助塑造了脊椎动物群落。＊＊＊

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. ***