A very well preserved canid skull from the Corbeddu Cave was compared to 80 skulls of Vulpes vul - pes and V. famelicus, Canis aure u s, Cuon alpinus, Canis lupus, and several fossil skulls of Cynotherium and Cuon using Simpson ratio diagrams for 11 measurements. The Corbeddu canid skull is very close to the Dragonara fossil and belongs to a Cynotherium. Craniological comparisons do not evidence a close relationship with any of the extant canids and support a full generic rank for the Sardinian canid. The most distinctive point of Cynotherium is the association of a wide muzzle with a small temporal fossa. Relatively wide muzzles characterise also Cuons, Wolves, and Canis falconeri in opposition to Jackals, Canis etruscus, and C.arnensis. The size of the temporal fossa is not known for C. falconeri. The small temporal fossa (found only in juvenile extant canids) could perhaps result from a neotenic evolution.

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Deinsea

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Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam

V. Eisenmann, & B. van der Geer. (1999). The Cynotherium from Corbeddu (Sardinia): comparative biometry with extant and fossil canids. Deinsea, 7(1), 147–168.