Ferinestrix, BJORK, 1970

Wolsan, Mieczyslaw & Sotnikova, Marina, 2013, Systematics, evolution, and biogeography of the Pliocene stem meline badger Ferinestrix (Carnivora: Mustelidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 167 (1), pp. 208-226 : 212-213

GENUS FERINESTRIX BJORK, 1970

Ferinestrix – Bjork, 1970: 19.

Ferinestris – Kalmykov & Maschenko, 2007: 182 (incorrect subsequent spelling); Maschenko, Takai & Kalmykov, 2007: 204 (incorrect subsequent spelling).

Firenestrix – Sotnikova, 2008a: 298 (incorrect subsequent spelling).

Etymology: Derived from the Latin ferina meaning ‘flesh of wild animals’ and estrix meaning ‘eater’; feminine in gender.

Revised diagnosis: Stem melines differing from all other taxa of the total clade of Melinae in the following features: body size larger; facial and palatal skull region rostrocaudally shorter relative to its transverse breadth; P2, P3, M1, and p2–p4 mesiodistally shorter relative to their vestibulolingual widths; m1 talonid smaller relative to the trigonid.

Type species: Ferinestrix vorax Bjork, 1970 . Referred species: Ferinestrix rapax sp. nov.

Phylogenetic relationships: Phylogenetic analysis recovered Ferinestrix as closely related to Arctomeles , Arctonyx , and Meles to the exclusion of Melodon ( Fig. 2 ).

Figures

Figure 2. Single most parsimonious tree (length, 21 steps; consistency index, 1.00; retention index, 1.00) obtained from parsimony analysis on a matrix of 16 characters by seven taxa (Table 1, with the pooled data for species of the same genus). Numbers above branches are bootstrap percentages (left) and decay indices (right) in support of the respective clades. Numbers below branches represent synapomorphies (characters and, in parentheses, their states) recovered for these clades under the criteria of both accelerated (ACCTRAN) and delayed (DELTRAN) transformations unless indicated by superscript A (only under ACCTRAN) or superscript D (only under DELTRAN).