Lycaon (genus)
Lycaon is a genus of canid which includes the African wild dog and the extinct Lycaon sekowei. This hypercarnivorous and highly cursorial genus is distinguished by accessory cusps on the premolars. It branched from the wolflike canids lineage during the Plio-Pleistocene. Since then, Lycaon has become lighter and tetradactyl, but has remained hypercarnivorous. Lycaon sekowei is known from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of South Africa and was less cursorial. Some authors consider the extinct Canis subgenus Xenocyon as ancestral to both Lycaon and Cuon.
