Microtomarctus is an extinct monospecific genus of the Borophaginae subfamily of canids native to North America. It lived during the Early to Middle Miocene,[1] and existed for approximately 7 million years. Fossil specimens have been found in Nebraska, coastal southeast Texas, California, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado. It was an intermediate-size canid, and more predaceous than earlier borophagines.[2]
| Microtomarctus Temporal range:
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| Replica of lower jaw at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Canidae |
| Subfamily: | †Borophaginae |
| Tribe: | †Borophagini |
| Genus: | †Microtomarctus Wang et al., 1999 |
| Species: | †M. confertus
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| Binomial name | |
| †Microtomarctus confertus Matthew, 1918
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Like some other borophagines it had powerful, bone-crushing jaws and teeth.[citation needed]
References
edit- ^ PaleoBiology Database: Microtomarctus Taxonomy, Species
- ^ Wang, Xiaoming; Tedford, Richard H. (2008). Dogs, Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History. Columbia. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-231-13528-3.
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