zoocreation


The Procyonidae



Raccoons and kin after the flood



Chad Arment (2025)





Raccoon (Procyon lotor) (© Anita Huszti)



This essentially New World family of small mammals is in the Carnivora, but species can be omnivorous like the raccoon, with ringtails being more carnivorous, and kinkajous mostly frugivorous. The Procyonidae, along with the Ailuridae (lesser pandas), the Mephitidae (skunks and stink badgers), and Mustelidae (weasels), make up the superfamily Musteloidea. The procyonids appear more closely related to the mustelids than to the other two families (Koepfli et al. 2017). For modern procyonids, genetics points to Procyon (raccoons) and Bassariscus (ringtails) as sister genera, and Nasua (coatis) and Bassaricyon (olingos) as sister genera, while Potos (kinkajous) is believed to have diverged earlier (Fulton and Strobeck 2007; Koepfli et al. 2007; Willis et al. 2025).


Only a general review of procyonids has taken place within creation science. Lightner (2012) suggested the family level for the Ark kind, while a baraminological survey of Cenozoic mammal taxa found ‘no clear evidence of discontinuity’ within the Procyonidae (Thompson and Wood 2018). Based on the fossil record, I suspect the Musteloidea may be the boundary for the created kind, but for this article I will just look at the Procyonidae as a monobaramin (part of a single created kind or baramin, whether it encompasses the whole or not).



Post-Flood diversification of the family Procyonidae



Early Procyonids



The earliest fossil musteloid, Mustelavus, is from Eocene North America, but the earliest procyonids, such as Broiliana and Stromeriella, appear in early Miocene Europe. Broiliana appears to have been closely related to the earliest North American procyonids, and may have been ancestral (Baskin 2004; Koepfli et al. 2017). Living North American procyonids are split as the Potosini (Potos) and Procyonini (everything else).


Edaphocyon was an early Miocene procyonid in Florida, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Texas, which may have been ancestral to the non-Bassariscus procyonines (Baskin 1989; Baskin 2003; PBDB). Probassariscus is known from Miocene Nebraska, Nevada, and Texas (Baskin 1989; Baskin 2004). Arctonasua appears in the Miocene and early Pliocene from the Gulf Coast to the Great Plains; Protoprocyon in Miocene Nebraska; and Paranasua in Miocene Florida and Oklahoma and Pliocene Kansas (Baskin and Valenciano 2023; PBDB). Most of the modern genera also emerged within the Miocene radiation.


The fossil record suggests two separate waves of dispersal from North America to South America. One was in the Miocene, prior to the connection of the two continents by the isthmus of Panama (via rafting, swimming, or island hopping), while the other was in the late Pliocene, after the land bridge formed, which triggered the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI). This means that procyonids were the first northern placental carnivores to reach South America after the Flood, where the primary mammalian predators were the hypercarnivorous metatherian sparassodonts (Tarquini et al. 2017a), which were likely already under population collapse. Regarding overwater dispersal, several modern procyonids have populated islands via swimming or rafting: the Cozumel island raccoon, the Tres Marias raccoon, and the Cozumel island coati (Engelman and Croft 2019).


Cyonasua and the bear-sized Chapalmalania were the earliest procyonids in South America, both known from late Miocene to Pliocene deposits, and Cyonasua into the early Pleistocene (Tarquini et al. 2017a; Tarquini et al. 2017b; Tarquini et al. 2020; Baskin and Valenciano 2023). Tetraprothomo and Parahyaenodon are known from late Miocene-early Pliocene deposits in Argentina. Cyonasua fossils have been found in Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Peru (Tarquini et al. 2020). Cyonasua is estimated to have been about twice the body mass of the living South American crab-eating raccoon (Tarquini et al. 2017a). Cyonasua was likely a generalist in habitat, and more carnivorous than a modern raccoon. The earliest fossils suggest these animals were partial to lowland and coastal habitats, increasing the chances of shallow marine crossing between North and South America by rafting, then dispersing mainly along the western coastline south (Tarquini et al. 2020). Cyonasua is the likely ancestor for most of the pre-GABI procyonids in South America, including (besides those mentioned above) Amphinasua and Brachynasua (Baskin and Valenciano 2023). This ‘Cyonasua group’ is not closely related to modern genera, but should be regarded as a sister group to the North American radiation that dispersed to South America after GABI. Cyonasua may have been most closely related to North American Arctonasua (Baskin 1989; Baskin and Valenciano 2023).



Kinkajou, or honey bear (Potos flavus)

(CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Vicki Liu)



Raccoon (Procyon lotor)

(© Arlene Jean Gee)



Ringtail (Bassariscus astutus)

(CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Tatiana Gettelman)



modern procyonids



The only fossil members of the Potosini, which includes the modern kinkajou, Potos flavus, are Bassaricyonoides from early Miocene Nevada, and Parapotos from middle Miocene Texas (Baskin 2003). This indicates that the kinkajou lineage diverged early within North America and dispersed into South America after GABI.


The earliest Procyon (raccoon) is from late Miocene California, with additional species known from Pliocene Kansas and Texas, and several species throughout Pleistocene North America (Wagner and Wang 2024). The common raccoon, Procyon lotor, emerged in the middle Pleistocene. The crab-eating raccoon, Procyon cancrivorus, is known from late Pleistocene Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina (Rodriguez et al. 2013; Ruiz-Ramoni et al. 2018). Procyon fossil teeth from an undetermined species, but likely a larger form than P. cancrivorus, are known from the late Pliocene-early Pleistocene El Breal de Orocual site in Venezuela (Ruiz-Ramoni et al. 2018), possibly the raccoon that arrived during the earliest immigration once the continents connected.


The ringtails (Bassariscus) are the sister genus of Procyon. The ringtail, Bassariscus astutus, ranges from southern Oregon, through California and the southwest, down into southern Mexico. The Central American cacomistle, Bassariscus sumichrasti, is found from southern Mexico to Panama. Several Bassariscus species have been described from Miocene fossils in Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Kansas, and California (Poglayen-Newall and Toweill 1988; Bever 2003; Baskin 2004; Gustafson 2015). Within the Pliocene, fossils are known from Kansas and Washington (Bever 2003; Gustafson 2015). Within the Pleistocene, most fossil sites are in the United States, with only a handful of late Pleistocene sites in Mexico. The ringtails never dispersed into South America. The Miocene Probassariscus is a primitive bassariscine, with Bassariscus exhibiting several derived traits with respect to it, but the two genera are not likely directly related (Baskin 1989).


The earliest North American coatimundis (Nasua) are found in the latest Miocene of Florida and Pliocene Florida and Texas (Gompper and Decker 1998; Baskin and Valenciano 2023). In South America, Nasua is known from the late Pliocene-early Pleistocene El Breal de Orocual site in Venezuela (Ruiz-Ramoni et al. 2018), making it an early immigrant during the GABI. Late Pleistocene fossils are known from Bolivia and Brazil (Gompper and Decker 1998). A separate genus, Nasuella, was traditionally given to the mountain coatis, however recent genetic analysis suggests that there is probably just the single genus, Nasua (Ruiz-García et al. 2022).


No fossils are known for the olingos, Bassaricyon (Prange and Prange 2009). They are currently distributed throughout Central America and into northern South America, and thus could have originated in either North or South America. Oddly, genetics suggests that olingos are the sister group to coatis, while the morphological evidence suggests a relationship with kinkajous (Baskin and Valenciano 2023): the latter likely reflects morphological convergence, as both are arboreal frugivores. One particular difference is that kinkajous have a muscular, prehensile tail, while olingos have a non-prehensile tail (Prange and Prange 2009).



White-nosed coatimundi (Nasua narica)

(CC BY-NC 2.0 Doug Greenberg)



Coatimundi (Nasua nasua)

(CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Tom Talbott)



Olingo (Bassaricyon sp.)

(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 John Mangold)



references



Baskin, J. 1989. Comments on New World Tertiary Procyonidae (Mammalia: Carnivora). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 9(1): 110-117.


Baskin, J. 2003. New procyonines from the Hemingfordian and Barstovian of the Gulf Coast and Nevada, including the first fossil record of the Potosini. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 279: 125-146.


Baskin, J. 2004. Bassariscus and Probassariscus (Mammalia, Carnivora, Procyonidae) from the early Barstovian (middle Miocene). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 24(3): 709-720.


Baskin, J., and A. Valenciano 2023. Procyonidae (Mammalia, Carnivora) and the Great American Biotic Interchange. in: Lee, Y.-N., ed. Windows into Sauropsid and Synapsid Evolution. South Korea: Dinosaur Science Center Press.


Bever, G. S. 2003. New record of Bassariscus ogallalae (Carnivora: Procyonidae) from the Ogallala group (Miocene) of Ellis County, Kansas, with comments on variation within Bassariscus. The Southwestern Naturalist 48(2): 249-256.


Engelman, R. K., and D. A. Croft. 2019. Strangers in a strange land: Ecological dissimilarity to metatherian carnivores may partly explain early colonization of South America by Cyonasua-group procyonids. Paleobiology 45(4): 598-611.


Fulton, T. L., and C. Strobeck. 2007. Novel phylogeny of the raccoon family (Procyonidae: Carnivora) based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA evidence. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 43: 1171-1177.


Gompper, M. E., and D. M. Decker. 1998. Nasua nasua. Mammalian Species 580: 1-9.


Gustafson, E. P. 2015. Bassariscus from the early Pliocene of Washington. Northwest Science 89(2): 129-135.


Koepfli, K.-P., J. W. Dragoo, and X. Wang. 2017. The evolutionary history and molecular systematics of the Musteloidea. in: Macdonald, D. W., et al., eds. Biology and Conservation of Musteloids. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.


Koepfli, K.-P., et al. 2007. Phylogeny of the Procyonidae (Mammalia: Carnivora): Molecules, morphology and the Great American Interchange. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 43: 1076-1095.


Lightner, J. K. 2012. Mammalian Ark kinds. Answers Research Journal 5: 151-204.


Poglayen-Neuwall, I., and D. E. Toweill. 1988. Bassariscus astutus. Mammalian Species 327: 1-8.


Prange, S., and T. J. Prange. 2009. Bassaricyon gabbii (Carnivora: Procyonidae). Mammalian Species 826: 1-7.


Rodriguez, S. G., et al. 2013. First record of Procyon cancrivorus (G. Cuvier, 1798) (Carnivora, Procyonidae) in stratigraphic content in the late Pleistocene of Brazil. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 45: 1-5.


Ruiz-García, M., et al. 2022. Mitochondrial and karyotypic evidence reveals a lack of support for the genus Nasuella (Procyonidae, Carnivora). Journal of Vertebrate Biology 71: 21040.


Ruiz-Ramoni, D., A. Rincón, and M. Montellano-Ballesteros. 2018. Evidencias del origen de Nasua y Procyon (Procyonidae: Carnivora) en América del Sur. Revista Brasileira de Paleontologia 21(1): 87-94.


Tarquini, J., et al. 2017a. Body mass estimation for †Cyonasua (Procyonidae, Carnivora) and related taxa based on postcranial skeleton. Historical Biology 30(4): 496-506.


Tarquini, J., et al. 2017b. The forelimb of †Cyonasua (Procyonidae, Carnivora): Ecomorphological interpretation in the context of carnivorans. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 106: 325-335.


Tarquini, J., et al. 2020. Cyonasua (Carnivora, Procyonidae) from late Miocene of Peru shed light on the early dispersal of carnivorans in South America. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 40(5): e1834406.


Thompson, C., and T. C. Wood. 2018. A survey of Cenozoic mammal baramins. Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism 8, Article 43: 217-221.


Wagner, H. M., and X. Wang. 2024. A new species of raccoon, Procyon garberi, from late Miocene (late Hemphillian) Mehrten Formation, Stanislaus County, California. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 123(2): 61-78.


Willis, H. R., et al. 2025. Complete mitochondrial genomes of the eastern lowland olingo (Bassaricyon alleni), ringtail (Bassariscus astutus), white-nosed coati (Nasua narica), and crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus) elucidate the phylogeny of the Procyonidae. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 13: 1518714.


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zoocreation