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Oxyclaenus Temporal range: Lower Palaeocene
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	†Arctocyonia
Family:	†Arctocyonidae
Genus:	†Oxyclaenus Cope, 1884
Type species
†Oxyclaenus cuspidatus Cope, 1884
Species
†Oxyclaenus cuspidatus Cope, 1884 †Oxyclaenus simplex Cope, 1884 †Oxyclaenus antiquus Simpson, 1935

Oxyclaenus is a genus of arctocyonid from the Lower Palaeocene of North America. Originally named as a subgenus of Mioclaenus, it is now regarded as a genus of its own. Three species (the type species O. cuspidatus, O. simplex and O. antiquus), are known, though several more have been named over the decades.

Taxonomy

Early history

The genus Oxyclaenus was originally erected by Edward Drinker Cope in 1884, as one of two subgenera of Mioclaenus. It was distinguished from the other subgenus, conventional Mioclaenus, by the lack of an internal tubercle on the third premolar. Three species, O, cuspidatus, O. simplex and the now-invalid O. ferox, were also assigned to Oxyclaenus. The type, O. cuspidatus, was distinguished from Mioclaenus by having molars that were wider transversely (diagonally) than anteroposteriorly (from front-to-back). Oxyclaenus was elevated to genus level by William Berryman Scott in 1892, who created a new diagnosis for the genus, and assigned it to a family of its own, Oxyclaenidae. Scott also synonymised O. simplex with O. cuspidatus. A species formerly assigned to Chriacus, C. antiquus, was reassigned to Oxyclaenus by Leigh Van Valen and Robert E. Sloan in 1965. The family Oxyclaenidae briefly became a wastebasket for basal arctocyonids, including Chriacus. In 2004, it was revised by Peter Kondrashov and Spencer G. Lucas and became a subfamily of Arctocyonidae that includes only Oxyclaenus.

Other species

Over the decades, several species have been assigned to Oxyclaenus that have since been reassigned or reassessed as invalid. O. pugnax, originally assigned to Chriacus, was reassigned to Oxyclaenus by Van Valen and Sloan in 1965. Kondrashov and Lucas determined that it was instead a subjective junior synonym of Loxolophus. O. pearcei, named Charles Lewis Gazin in 1941, and O. corax, named by Paul A. Johnston and Richard C. Fox, in 1984, are likely synonyms of O. simplex.

References

1. Cope, E. D. (1883). "Second Addition to the Knowledge of the Puerco Epoch". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 21 (114): 309–324. ISSN 0003-049X.
2. ^ Scott, W. B. (1892). "A Revision of the North American Creodonta with Notes on Some Genera Which Have Been Referred to That Group". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 44: 291–323. ISSN 0097-3157.
3. ^ Van Valen, Leigh; Sloan, Robert E. (1965). "The Earliest Primates". Science. 150 (3697): 743–745. ISSN 0036-8075.
4. ^ Kondrashov, Peter; Lucas, Spencer G. (2004). "Oxyclaenus from the Early Paleocene of New Mexico and the status of the Oxyclaeninae (Mammalia, Arctocyonidae)". New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin. 26: 21–31.
5. Gazin, Charles Lewis (1941). "The mammalian faunas of the Paleocene of central Utah, with notes on the geology" (PDF). Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 91: 1–53.
6. Johnston, Paul A.; Fox, Richard C. (1984-01-01). "Paleocene and Late Cretaceous Mammals from Saskatchewan, Canada". Palaeontographica Abteilung A: 163–222.

• Arctocyonia
• Prehistoric placental genera