The taxonomy of Carnivora in general and Canidae in particular correlates with various diagnostic features of the dentition and basicranium. Regarding Vulpini, Tedford has remarked:
These small canids are distinguished from all other Caninae in possessing a wide paroccipital process that is broadly sutured to the posterior surface of the bulla with a short and laterally turned free tip that barely extends below the body of the process. The presence of a metaconule and postprotocrista on M2 of vulpines represents the culmination of a reversal that began with late Leptocyon species to resume the form of the primitive canine M2.
^ abDamián Ruiz-Ramoni; Francisco Juan Prevosti; Saverio Bartolini Lucenti; Marisol Montellano-Ballesteros; Ana Luisa Carreño (2020). "The Pliocene canid Cerdocyon avius was not the type of fox that we thought". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 40 (2): e1774889. doi:10.1080/02724634.2020.1774889. S2CID222214868.