Nyctereutes is an east Asian genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of the family Canidae

Canidae

Canidae is the biological family of carnivorous and omnivorous mammals that includes wolves, foxes, jackals, coyotes, and domestic dogs. A member of this family is called a canid . The Canidae family is divided into two tribes: Canini and Vulpini...

, consisting of just one living species, the Raccoon Dog

Raccoon Dog

The raccoon dog , also known as the magnut or tanuki, is a canid indigenous to east Asia. It is the only extant species in the genus Nyctereutes...

. Nyctereutes appeared about 9.0 Ma, with all but one species becoming extinct before the Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

.

Taxonomy

It is considered a basal

Basal (phylogenetics)

In phylogenetics, a basal clade is the earliest clade to branch in a larger clade; it appears at the base of a cladogram.A basal group forms an outgroup to the rest of the clade, such as in the following example:...

 genus, resembling the ancestral form of Canidae. It most likely diverged from other canids seven to ten million years ago.

Nyctereutes was named by Temminck (1839). It was assigned to Canidae by Carroll (1988) and Geraads (1997).

Species

• †Nyctereutes abdeslami 3.6—1.8 Ma (Morocco)
• †Nyctereutes donnezani 9.0—3.4 Ma. (Eastern Europe, Spain)
• Nyctereutes procyonoides (Mongolia, Russian Far East, China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam)
• †Nyctereutes sinensis 3.6 Ma—781,000 years ago (Eastern Asia)