Simocyon diaphorus

Simocyon diaphorus is an extinct carnivoran of the red panda family Ailuridae and the earliest known European species of the genus Simocyon. It comes from the early Vallesian locality of Eppelsheim in Germany, of the late Miocene, and Kaup described it in 1832 from a fragment of left lower jaw with the second premolar to the second molar, which is the only known specimen. The original was lost by 1861, so the species is now studied from a plaster cast kept in the Natural History Museum in London. It is the most primitive of the three Simocyon species accepted in a 2005 review, with a less reduced third lower premolar than Simocyon batalleri, and its earlier relatives kept their premolars, unlike the later Simocyon primigenius. The genus shows a more carnivorous diet than any other ailurid or procyonid.