Aenocyon

Aenocyon is an extinct genus of canines that lived between the Pleistocene and early Holocene epochs. The type species is the dire wolf. The other species, A. armbrusteri was originally classified as species of Canis genus, but more recent studies suggest that belongs to genus Aenocyon.

Aenocyon

Momotarou2012 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
CaninaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Canidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Canidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 645 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 774 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Pliocene — about 0 of 90 occurrencesPleistocene — about 90 of 90 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 90 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.2–1.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.1–1.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.0–924 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 19 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 50 occurrences774 ka129 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

90 occurrences of Aenocyon on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

90 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

15 formations

Palos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WPalos Verdes Sand — 34.00°N, 118.20°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.76°N, 118.29°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.63°N, 117.89°WKingsdown — 37.04°N, 100.48°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WWando — 33.01°N, 79.09°WWando — 32.88°N, 80.10°WManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°WTacubaya — 21.80°N, 102.30°WTurlock Lake — 37.06°N, 120.20°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WRiverbank — 38.60°N, 121.50°WSilver Bluff — 32.56°N, 80.29°WTarija — 21.53°S, 64.73°WShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°WGuxiangtun — 45.92°N, 127.40°ELujan — 34.60°S, 59.15°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Aenocyon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 70 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aenocyon and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Aenocyon and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,490 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 87 sites for Aenocyon, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

72 references

Each of the 90 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 60 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Aenocyon

Credit
Momotarou2012
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Aenocyon was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCaninae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Merriam 1918)