Study of the Taxonomy of Carnivores from the Eocene-Oligocene of the Quercy Area, France

Abstract: The Quercy area of France is an important site for mammal palaeontology, yet 19th century collections of this area, such as the one in the Department of Palaeobiology, Naturhistoriska riksmuseet, remain understudied due to not being well updated taxonomically and correlated stratigraphically. An updated taxonomy was created for the postcranial material of the collections, as well as the dental material originally identified to the amphicyonid genera Amphicyon, Haplocyon and Pseudocyon through study of morphological characteristics and measurements. Most of the postcranial material was assigned to a family, which would allow comparison of different morphotypes to gain insight into questions on locomotion, posture and overall ecology. The dental material was reidentified to include the amphicyonids (bear dogs) Amphicyonidae gen. indet. sp. indet, Pseudocyonopsis, Cynelos and Haplocyon, as well as the mustelid Ischyrictis zibethoides. Stratigraphic ranges for the identified species were obtained from existing studies. This updated taxonomy would allow for future study of this material to improve the overall understanding of Quercy, as well as the taxa present in these localities.