Huracan (all species)

[Gorilla king]

Huracan (genus)

Huracan is an extinct genus of agriotheriin ailuropodine from the Neogene period with fossils found from North America and eastern Asia. Unlike its modern relative giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) which is a bamboo specialist, Huracan was a hypercarnivorous genus of bear that had adaptations of cursoriality.





History

Specimens of Huracan were originally classified as species of the related genus Agriotherium. Hunt (1998) had noted differences in the structure of the carnassials between Agriotherium schneideri and Old World species of said genus, but lots of similarities between A. schneideri and genus Indarctos.[2] This was further supported in the 2019 publication of A. hendeyi which led the authors of the study to do a comprehensive analysis of agriotheriin specimens to assess their taxonomy.[3][1]

Systematics

When Jiangzuo et al. (2023) computed the phylogenetic analysis, they found Indarctos to be paraphyletic to the clade containing the genera Huracan and Agriotherium.[1]

Species

Huracan schneideri

The genotype species, H. schneideri was formally described by Sellards in 1916 from fossil material collected from the Upper Bony Valley, Hardee and Polk counties, Florida, a typical Latest Hemphillian. The main holotype was a mandible (USNM 8838) but additional material of this species has since been collected from this locality and other locations from the southern United States and parts of Mexico. Differs from other species in the genus of shorter and smaller premolars and molars.[1]

H. coffeyi

H. coffeyi was described by Dalquest, 1986 on a holotype (MWSU 12147) found from Coffee Ranch in Texas. The holotype specimen is a partial mandible preserving some molar teeth. All specimens of the species were originally classified as those of Agriotherium schneideri, though H. coffeyi differs from H. schneideri in having much larger and longer premolars and molars.[1]

H. qiui

H. qiui is a new species described by Jiangzuo et al.,2023. The holotype (HMV 2005) is a nearly complete skull from the Wangjiashan fossil locality. This species differs from H. coffeyi and H. schneideri in not being as hypercarnivorous with more developed anterior premolars and the first and second molars longer. The skull is also much narrower in this species.[1]

Other possible species

Two species of agriotheriin bears, A. roblesi and I. punjabensis might belong to Huracan as well based on overall similarities of their molars. In the case of I. punjabensis is sister to the Agriotherium–Huracan clade.[1]


en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huracan_(genus)

[Gorilla king]

New Fossil Giant Panda Relatives (Ailuropodinae, Ursidae): A Basal Lineage of Gigantic Mio-Pliocene Cursorial Carnivores


Abstract and Figures

Among the fossil members of the giant panda subfamily of ursid carnivorans, Ailuropodinae, one group of species is of giant size, those of Indarctos. Indarctos species have some dental resemblances to and may be closely related to Agriotherium, although there are other clear differences between these taxa, and no known species has definitive shared derived traits that could link these two genera. Here we describe a rich suite of fossil material from both North America and eastern Asia, all belonging to a new genus, Huracan, which possesses characters shared with both Agriotherium and Indarctos but also has diagnostic autapomorphies. The new taxon was distributed widely in the Holarctic during the latest Miocene, including at least four species: the type species Huracan schneideri (previously Agriotherium schneideri) from the latest Hemphillian (Hh4) and possibly early Blancan North American Land Mammal “Ages” (NALMAs), North America; H. coffeyi from the early Late Hemphillian (Hh3) NALMA, North America; H. qiui, sp. nov., from the Baodean Asian Land Mammal “Age” (ALMA), northern China; and H. roblesi from the MN13 zone (latest Miocene–earliest Pliocene) of Spain. Huracan is the nearest sister taxon to Agriotherium, the latter herein considered to be an ailuropodine (in the tribe Agriotheriini) rather than a hemicyonid, and the common ancestor of both genera evolved from Indarctos (with resultant paraphyly of that taxon) or another Indarctos-like ailuropodine bear, likely in eastern Asia. The dentitions of Huracan and Agriotherium both are more specialised for carnivory than most Indarctos species, indicating a radiation of diverse ecological carnivores earlier in the history of the later-diverging, highly specialized herbivores in the giant panda lineage. Their postcranial morphology suggests that species in both genera (Huracan and Agriotherium) were more cursorial than species assigned to Indarctos, and thus well adapted to more open habitats. These derived traits may explain the worldwide replacement of Indarctos species by Huracan and Agriotherium species during the latest Miocene, in response to significant global cooling and expansion of C4 grasslands that occurred at that time.







www.researchgate.net/publication/369256994_New_Fossil_Giant_Panda_Relatives_Ailuropodinae_Ursidae_A_Basal_Lineage_of_Gigantic_Mio-Pliocene_Cursorial_Carnivores

[Gorilla king]

HURACAN SCHNEIDERI





prehistoric-fauna.com/Huracan

[oldindigosilverback]

Looks like a giant cinnamon bear in the picture above.

[Montezuma]

Some interesting images about Huracan migrations and taxonomy:






bioone.org/journals/american-museum-novitates/volume-2023/issue-3996/3996.1/New-Fossil-Giant-Panda-Relatives-Ailuropodinae-Ursidae--A-Basal/10.1206/3996.1.short

[arctozilla]

Did this bear coexisted with bear dogs?

[Gorilla king]

Jul 6, 2023 11:25:22 GMT -5 arctozilla said:

Did this bear coexisted with bear dogs?

Kind of hard to say, but they may have coexisted. Huracan existed in the Neogene period, while bear dogs first appeared in the middle Eocene epoch, and disappeared by the late Miocene epoch. The Miocene epoch was part of the Neogene period, and this is where they might have coexisted.

[oldindigosilverback]

Another extinct bear discovered . Nobody knows how much more there are.