Жануарлар әлемінің проционидтар отбасысы

Family of mammals

Procyonidae (/p//r//oʊ//s//iː//j//ɔː//n//ɪ//d//iː/) is a New World family of the order Carnivora. It includes the raccoons, ringtails, cacomistles, coatis, kinkajous, olingos, and olinguitos. Procyonids inhabit a wide range of environments and are generally omnivorous.

Procyonids are relatively small animals, with generally slender bodies and long tails, though the common raccoon tends to be bulky. Because of their general build, the Procyonidae are often popularly viewed as smaller cousins of the bear family. This is apparent in their German names: a raccoon is called a Waschbär (washing bear, as it "washes" its food before eating), a coati is a Nasenbär (nose bear), while a kinkajou is a Honigbär (honey bear). Dutch follows suit, calling the animals wasbeer, neusbeer and rolstaartbeer (curl tail bear) respectively. However, it is now believed that procyonids are more closely related to mustelids than to bears. Procyonids share common morphological characteristics including a shortened rostrum, absent alisphenoid canals, and a relatively flat mandibular fossa. Kinkajous have unique morphological characteristics due to their arboreally adapted locomotion, including a prehensile tail and unique femoral structure. Due to their omnivorous diet, procyonids have lost some of the adaptations for flesh eating found in their carnivorous relatives. While they do have carnassial teeth, these are poorly developed in most species, especially the raccoons. Apart from the kinkajou, procyonids have the dental formula: for a total of 40 teeth. The kinkajou has one fewer premolar in each row: for a total of 36 teeth. Most members of Procyonidae are solitary; however, some species form groups. Coati females will form bands of 4 to 24 individuals that forage together, while Kinkajous have been found to form social groups of two males and one female. Certain Procyonids give birth to one offspring like ringtails, olingos, and kinkajous while raccoons and coatis give birth to litters that range in size from 2 to 6 offspring.

Procyonid fossils once believed to belong to the genus Bassariscus, which includes the modern ringtail and cacomistle, have been identified from the Miocene epoch, around 20 million years (Ma) ago. It has been suggested that early procyonids were an offshoot of the canids that adapted to a more omnivorous diet. The recent evolution of procyonids has been centered on Central America (where their diversity is greatest); beginning about 7.3 Ma ago in the late Miocene, with the appearance of Cyonasua. Some fossil procyonids such as Stromeriella were also present in the Old World, before going extinct in the Pliocene. Genetic studies have shown that kinkajous are a sister group to all other extant procyonids; they split off about 22.6 Ma ago. The clades leading to coatis and olingos on one branch, and to ringtails and raccoons on the other, separated about 17.7 Ma ago.

Several recent molecular studies have resolved the phylogenetic relationships between the procyonids, as illustrated in the cladogram below.