Amphicyon
Name: Amphicyon
(Ambiguous dog).
Phonetic: Am-fee-cie-on.
Named By: Lartet - 1836.
Synonyms: Arctamphicyon?
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia, Carnivora,
Amphicyonidae, Amphicyoninae.
Species: A. intermedius (type), A.
frendens, A. frendes, A. galushai, A. giganteus, A.
ingens, A. laugnacensis, A. longiramus, A. major, A.
pontoni, A. reinheimeri, A. riggsi, A. zhanxiangi.
Diet: Primarily carnivorous but also thought to be
an omnivore.
Size: Up to 2.5 meters long, but exact size
depends upon species.
Known locations: Europe, Middle East, Asia,
North America and Southern Africa.
Time period: Aquitanian through to Tortonian of the
Miocene.
Fossil representation: Many known specimens allowing
for complete restorations.
In
popular culture Amphicyon is possibly the best
known genera of the
group known as ‘bear
dogs’. This group was so named because of
the immensely robust build of the body that gave them the appearance of
bears even though the heads were more dog-like. Despite this more
general name, Amphicyon was not a true dog,
although it did live
alongside animals that were more closely related to true dogs such as
Epicyon.
Amphicyon
was one of the larger examples of the bear dogs, and of the known
species A. ingens from North America is often
cited as one of the
largest. It’s thought that the arrival of amphicyonine bear dogs in
North America
replaced older carnivores like Hyaenodon
as the
dominant predators of
the land until they themselves were replaced by a combined emergence of
new feline and canid predators.
Although
Amphicyon is thought by many to have been an
omnivore, it still had
dedicated adaptations for hunting. Its sheer physical size meant that
it was capable of overpowering many of the potential prey items that
it came into contact with, and the especially well developed
forelimbs suggest it was capable of wrestling prey to the ground.
However this strength came at the price of speed, so Amphicyon
would
have been restricted to prey that could not run away from it,
possibly larger and slower but more powerful animals like Chalicotherium
that would have
necessitated the extra strength.
The
concept of pack behaviour in Amphicyon has been
considered by some,
but while it is a possibility there is so far very little in the way
of direct evidence to support this behaviour. If Amphicyon
was a
solitary hunter it may have eventually had to go up against pack
animals
like wolves, and while some solitary predators can and do hold their
ground against wolf packs (as can be witnessed today with grizzly
bears
stealing the kills from packs of grey wolves), this is not an
absolute rule that can be applied to everything. Such competition
could be a key part of the ultimate downfall of Amphicyon
as a dominant
carnivore, as well as a seeming shift of herbivorous prey animals
becoming larger, faster and more powerful in their own rights,
meaning that Amphicyon no longer had a size
advantage, but possibly
a size hindrance.
Further reading
- Third contribution to the Snake Creek Fauna. - Bulletin of the
American Museum of Natural History 50:59-210. - W. D. Matthew - 1924.
- A new Amphicyon from the Deep River Miocene. -
Geological Series,
Field Museum of Natural History 6(23):341-350. - P. O. McGrew - 1939.
- New Miocene Vertebrates From Florida. - Proceedings of the New
England Zoological Club 18:31-38. - T. E. White - 1940.
World beardog Amphicyon (Carnivora, Amphicyonidae) in North America. -
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 279:77-115. - R. M.
Hunt jr. - 2003.
- A new amphicyonid (Mammalia, Carnivora, Amphicyonidae) from the late
middle Miocene of northern Thailand and a review of the amphicyonine
record in Asia. - Thailand Journal of Asian Earth Sciences. 26 (5):
519–532. - St�phane Peign�, Yaowalak Chaimanee, Chotima Yamee &
Pannipa Tian - 2006.
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