The New Bear Dog: Paludocyon moyasolai

Publication Info:

Transcript:

J. Morales et al. 2026. A new species of Paludocyon (Carnivora: Amphicyonidae) from the early Middle Miocene of els Casots (Vallès-Penedès Basin, Barcelona, Spain). J. Mamm. Evol 33, 29; doi: 10.1007/s10914-026-09814-6

Meet Paludocyon moyasolai, the newest bear dog, or Amphicyon from Miocene Spain 🐕 Amphicyons weren't bears or dogs, but their own group of carnivores that ruled the world 5-40 million years ago. This new species may be changing what paleontologists know about how and where these animals evolved.

Episode 291

Notes:

So, have you ever heard about bear dogs? 'Cause this brand new species might be kind of blowing up what paleontologists know about their evolution. Here's your most recent paleontology news almost daily or whenever I get around to it. So, bear dogs are not dogs or bears or dogs that look like bears or bears that look like dogs or anything like that. They're their own animal called an Amphicyonid. And members of Amphicyonidae are caniforms and truly within Carnivora, but they diverged from animals like bears and dogs 40-some-odd million years ago. But the differences were a little terrifying cuz they kind of oversized heads and the teeth were ridiculous. They were a whole bunch of different sizes and shapes ranging from pretty much dog shaped to well, pretty much bear shaped and everything from like 11 lb up to 2,000 lb. First showing up like 42 million years ago in North America and lasting all the way up until the late Miocene like 5 million years ago where the last species were seen in Africa. But that's kind of changing. Meet the brand new bear dog, Paludocyon moyasolai, from middle Miocene Spain just about 16 million years ago. And yeah, that sounds like it probably fits right in the kind of expected time range and Paludocyon is not a new genus, but moyasolai is. And it's the most basal or primitive Paludocyon ever discovered. So, how is that making things weird? Well, because of its relationship to the other Paludocyon species, it's leading paleontologists to believe that Cynelos, another genus of Amphicyon known throughout North America and Europe, uh is is actually paraphyletic, meaning that the members of the group aren't necessarily closely related. And according to researchers, by breaking up this paraphyletic group, it could indicate that the animals in North America and Europe evolved independently of each other, first coming from an earlier Asian relative. But they do note that it's still possible they come from a North American relative. As usual, if you want more information, here's the source.