Quercygale

Quercygale Temporal range: 55.2–35.0  Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N Early to Late Eocene
skull of species Quercygale angustidens
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Clade:	Pan-Carnivora
Clade:	Carnivoramorpha
Clade:	Carnivoraformes
Family:	† Quercygalidae Kretzoi, 1945 [1]
Genus:	† Quercygale Kretzoi, 1945
Type species
†Quercygale angustidens Filhol, 1872
Species
[see classification]
Synonyms
synonyms of genus: Humbertia(De Beaumont, 1965) [2] synonyms of species: Q. angustidens: Humbertia angustidens(De Beaumont, 1965) Procynodictis euzetensis(Depéret, 1917) [3] Viverra angustidens(Filhol, 1872) [4] Viverravus euzetensis(Depéret, 1917) Q. hastingsae: Viverra hastingsae(Davies, 1884) Viverravus hastingsae(Depéret, 1917) Q. helvetica: Cynodon helveticus(Rütimeyer, 1862) Humbertia helvetica(De Beaumont, 1965) Miacis macintyri(Van Valen, 1965) [5] Quercygale macintyri(Russell, 1982) [6] Tapocyon macintyri(Russell, 1982)

Quercygale ("weasel from Quercy") is an extinct genus of placental mammals from the clade Carnivoraformes, that lived in Europe during the early to late Eocene. ^{[7] [8]}

Relation to other taxa

Currently, Quercygale is either assigned to no family (i. e. it is just classified as one of the basal genera of Carnivoraformes) or it is assigned to the paraphyletic family Miacidae. ^[9] Phylogenetic analysis of the basicranial morphology of carnivoramorphans suggests that Quercygale is the most advanced member of the clade Carnivoraformes as a sister taxon to crown-clade Carnivora, predating the split between Feliformia and Caniformia. ^{[10] [11] [12]} Another recent study, however, has proposed that the genus Quercygale should be placed as a stem group within Feliformia. ^[13]

In the past (till about 2010), Quercygale was assigned either to the family Miacidae (which was considered monophyletic in the past), or to the family Viverravidae. Only one author (Kretzoi 1945) classified it as the only genus of its own family Quercygalidae (Quercygalidae, however, was considered another name for the family Miacidae by another author). Alternatively, individual authors considered Quercygale to be a basal genus of Caniformia or a synonym of the genus Tapocyon . ^{[10] [14] [15]}

Species

Genus: †Quercygale(Kretzoi, 1945)

Species:	Distribution of the species and type locality:	Age:
†Q. angustidens(Filhol, 1872) [4]	France (Quercy Phosphorites and Sables Du Castrais)	40.0–37.5 Ma
†Q. hastingsae(Davies, 1884) [16]	UK (Headon Bedes)	37.8–37.5 Ma
†Q. helvetica(Rütimeyer, 1862) [17]	France   Germany    Switzerland	47.8–41.2 Ma
†Q. smithi(Solé, 2014) [11]	France (Mutigny and Mancy)	55.2–47.8 Ma
†Q. sp. [MNNA 9010] (Astibia, 2000) [18]	Spain (Basque Country)	37.0–35.0 Ma

References

1. Miklos Kretzoi (1945) "Bemerkungen über das Raubtiersystem." Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici, Budapest, vol. 38, pp. 59–83.
2. Gérard de Beaumont (1965.) "Les Viverravinae (Carnivora, Miacidae) de l’Eocène de la Suisse." Bulletin de la Société Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles 69:133–146.
3. Depéret C. (1917.) "Monographie de la faune de mammiféres fossiles du Ludien inférieur d'Euget-les-Bains (Gard)." Ann. Univ. Lyon (N. S.), Div. 1, 40, 1–288.
4. Filhol, H (1872). "Recherches sur les mammifères fossiles des dépots de phosphate de chaux dans les départements du Lot, du Tarn et de Tarn−et− Garonne". Annales des Sciences Géologiques. 3: 1–31.
5. Van Valen, Leigh (1965). "Some European Proviverrini (Mammalia, Deltatheridia)" (PDF). Palaeontology. 8: 638–665.
6. Donald E. Russell, Jean-Louis Hartenberger, Charles Pomerol, Sevket Sen, Norbert Schmidt-Kittler and Monique Vianey-Liaud (1982.) "Mammals and stratigraphy: the Paleocene of Europe" Palaeovertebrata Vol. 12
7. McKenna, Malcolm C.; Bell, Susan K. (1997). Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN   978-0-231-11012-9.
8. "Quercygale". Paleobiology Database . Retrieved 11 March 2017.
9. Solé, F. et al. Dental and Tarsal Anatomy of 'Miacis' latouri and a Phylogenetic Analysis of the Earliest Carnivoraforms (Mammalia, Carnivoramorpha). Journal of Vert. Paleontology. 34 (1), Jan 2014: 1-21.
10. 1 2 Wesley-Hunt, G. D.; Werdelin, L. (2005). "Basicranial morphology and phylogenetic position of the upper Eocene carnivoramorphan Quercygale". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 50 (4): 837–846.
11. Solé, Floréal (2014). "New carnivoraforms from the early Eocene of Europe and their bearing on the evolution of the Carnivoraformes". Palaeontology. 57 (5): 963–978. Bibcode:2014Palgy..57..963S. doi:10.1111/pala.12097. ISSN   1475-4983. S2CID   129314381.
12. Flink, T.; Werdelin, L. (2022). "Digital endocasts from two late Eocene carnivores shed light on the evolution of the brain at the origin of Carnivora". Papers in Palaeontology. 8 (2): e1422. Bibcode:2022PPal....8E1422F. doi: 10.1002/spp2.1422 . S2CID   247465166.
13. Tomiya, Susumu; Tseng, Zhijie Jack (2016). "Whence the beardogs? Reappraisal of the Middle to Late Eocene 'Miacis' from Texas, USA, and the origin of Amphicyonidae (Mammalia, Carnivora)". Royal Society Open Science. 3 (10): 160518. Bibcode:2016RSOS....360518T. doi:10.1098/rsos.160518. ISSN   2054-5703. PMC   5098994 . PMID   27853569.
14. FLYNN, J. J., GALIANO, H. Phylogeny of early Tertiary Carnivora : with a description of a new species of Protictis from the Middle Eocene of northwestern Wyoming. American Museum novitates ; no. 2725. 1982
15. CARROLL, R. L. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W.H. Freeman and Company, New York. 1988. p. 633
16. Davies, W. (1884). "Notes on some new carnivores from the British Eocene formations". Geological Magazine NS, Decade III. 1 (10): 433–438. Bibcode:1884GeoM....1..433D. doi:10.1017/s0016756800185802. S2CID   131595417.
17. Rütimeyer, L. (1862.) "Eocaene Säugetiere aus dem Gebiet des Schweizerischen Jura." Neue Denkschriften der allgemeinen Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für die gesammten Naturwissenschaften, 19, 1–98.
18. H. Astibia, A. Aranburu, X. Pereda Suberbiola, X. Murelaga, C. Sesé, M. A. Cuesta, S. Moyà-Solà, J. E. Baceta, A. Badiola and M. Köhler (2000.) "Un nouveau site à vertébrés continentaux de l'Éocène supérieur de Zambrana (Bassin de Maranda-Treviño, Alava, Pays basque)." Géobios 32(2):233-248