This
hypercarnivorous and highly
cursorial genus is distinguished by accessory
cusps on the
premolars. It branched from
the wolflike canids lineage during the
Plio-Pleistocene. Since then,
Lycaon has become lighter and
tetradactyl, but has remained hypercarnivorous.
Lycaon sekowei is known from the early Pleistocene epoch of South Africa and was less
cursorial. Some researchers consider the extinct
Canis subgenus Xenocyon as ancestral to both
Lycaon and
Cuon. Other researchers propose that the extinct
Canis (Xenocyon) falconeri and
Canis (Xenocyon) lycaonoides should be classified under genus
Lycaon, to give the descent of three chronospecies:
L. falconeri in the Late Pliocene of Eurasia →
L. lycaonoides in the Early Pleistocene and the beginning of the
Middle Pleistocene of Eurasia and Africa →
L. pictus in the Middle–Late Pleistocene and today the extant African descendant. ==See also==