The Pleistocene bush dog (''Speothos pacivorus'') is an extinct canid

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

in the genus ''

Speothos ''Speothos'' is a genus of canid found in Central and South America. The genus includes the living bush dog, ''Speothos venaticus'', and an extinct Pleistocene species, ''Speothos pacivorus''. Unusually, the fossil species was identified and nam ...

'' from the

Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of ...

. It was a relative of the extant

bush dog The bush dog (''Speothos venaticus'') is a canine found in Central and South America. In spite of its extensive range, it is very rare in most areas except in Suriname, Guyana and Peru; it was first identified by Peter Wilhelm Lund from fossils ...

. When compared to the bush dog, ''S. pacivorus'' had an overall larger body size, a straighter

radial shaft The radius or radial bone is one of the two large bones of the forearm, the other being the ulna. It extends from the lateral side of the elbow to the thumb side of the wrist and runs parallel to the ulna. The ulna is usually slightly longer than ...

and a double-rooted second lower molar.*

References

Speothos Prehistoric canines Holocene extinctions Pleistocene carnivorans Pleistocene mammals of South America Lujanian Pleistocene Brazil Holocene Brazil Fossils of Brazil Fossil taxa described in 1839 {{canid-stub