Cyonasua

Cyonasua
Temporal range: Miocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Procyonidae
Genus: Cyonasua
Ameghino 1885
Species
  • C. argentina

Cyonasua is an extinct procyonid genus from the late Miocene of South America (7.3[1] to 5 million years ago). Its name in Greek means dog-coati because its features resemble those of a dog and a coati. Its ancestors likely arrived from Central America by island hopping, as perhaps the earliest southward mammalian migrants of the Great American Interchange. Its predators were terror birds and carnivorous metatherians. It evolved into the bear-like Chapalmalania.

References

  1. Woodburne, M. O. (2010-07-14). "The Great American Biotic Interchange: Dispersals, Tectonics, Climate, Sea Level and Holding Pens". Journal of Mammalian Evolution 17 (4): 245–264. doi:10.1007/s10914-010-9144-8. PMC 2987556. PMID 21125025.