| Bassariscus | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Procyonidae |
| Subfamily: | Procyoninae |
| Tribe: | Bassariscini |
| Genus: | Bassariscus Coues, 1887 |
| Type species | |
| Bassaris astuta[1] (Lichtenstein 1830) | |
| Species | |
Bassariscus astutus | |
Bassariscus is agenus in thefamilyProcyonidae. There are two extant species in the genus: theringtail or ring-tailed cat (B. astutus) and thecacomistle (B. sumichrasti). Genetic studies have indicated that the closest relatives ofBassariscus areraccoons,[2][3][4] from which they diverged about 10 million years ago in theTortonian Age of theMiocene.[4] The two lineages ofBassariscus are thought to have separated after only another two million years,[2] making it the extant procyonid genus with the earliest diversification. Later diversification in the genus in thePliocene andPleistocene saw the emergence of two extinct species,Bassariscus casei andBassariscus sonoitensis, respectively. Due to the more digitigrade stance of their legs compared to the plantigrade stance of other members of Procyonidae, some taxonomies place the genus as a separate family,Bassaricidae..[5] The name is a Greek word for fox ("bassaris") with a Latinized diminutive ending ("-iscus").[6] The genus was named byElliott Coues in 1887, having previously been described byLichtenstein in 1830 under the nameBassaris. Coues proposed the word "bassarisk" as the English term for animals in this genus.[7] Itshabitat includes semi-arid areas in thesouthwestern United States,[8] the whole ofMexico, as well as moist tropical forests inCentral America.
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Bassariscus astutus | Ringtail | Southern United States from southernOregon andCalifornia throughout the southwestern states to Texas. In Mexico it ranges from the northern desert state ofBaja California toOaxaca. Its distribution overlaps that ofB. sumichrasti in the Mexican states ofGuerrero, Oaxaca andVeracruz.[9] |
| †Bassariscus casei[10] | Case's ringtail[11] | An extinct species with fossils first found in the UpperPliocene strata of the Rexroad formation inKansas[12] and later in the Late Blancan strata in California.[11] | |
| †Bassariscus sonoitensis[10] | An extinct species with only three known locations in Papago Springs Cave,Santa Cruz County, Arizona (1942), San Josecito Cave,Nuevo León, Mexico (1958), and U-Bar Cave,Hidalgo County, New Mexico (1987), that lived from the latePleistocene and went extinct before the full-glacial period of the lateWisconsinian.[13] | ||
 | Bassariscus sumichrasti | Cacomistle | Central America, from south central Mexico toPanama. |
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Data related toRingtail Cat at WikispeciesAuthority control databases: National |
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