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

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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. ***