Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo05amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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38 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL illustrate the evolution of these animals from the primitive civet-like Camivora of the Eocene epoch. The Miocene stage, Leptarctus, is very little known; only a lower jaw and an upper tooth have been found. Of the Oligocene stage, Phlaocyon, a nearly complete skeleton was found in 1898, of which the skull, jaws, limbs and feet are on exhibition. This unique specimen is one of the best preserved fossil Carnivores in the collection. It is intermediate between the civet-like ancestors of the dogs (DaphcBnus and Cynodictis) and the modem raccoons. The
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FIG. 14. UNDER SIDE OF SKULL OF PHLAOCYON A link between raccoons and primitive dogs. Lower Miocene of Colorado. Natural size shape of the skull is raccoon-like, but the number of teeth is the same as in the dogs, while their form is intermediate between the two types. The limbs and feet are also intermediate. It is probable, therefore, that the Dogs and Raccoons are derived from a common ancestral stock. Specimens found in Europe in- dicate that the Bears are likewise derived from this common stock, and that the three families have diverged, the Dogs becom- ing terrestrial fiesh-eaters, living largely in open country, the Bears omnivorous and living in the woods, the Raccoons omniv- orous and arboreal.

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