Aphelops

Aphelops is an extinct genus of hornless rhinocerotids endemic to North America. It lived from the Middle Miocene to the Early Pliocene, during which it was a common component of North American mammalian faunas along with Teleoceras.

Aphelops

James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · 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
AceratheriinaePBDB
Diet
browserPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 6.9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 16.3 Mya to 9.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 3.6 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 192 occurrencesMiocene — about 185 of 192 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 7 of 192 occurrencesPliocene24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 5 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 7 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 7 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 9 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 13 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 13 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 13 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 13 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 13 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 10 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 9 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 9 occurrences11–9.9 Mya — about 9 occurrences9.9–9.2 Mya — about 9 occurrences9.2–8.6 Mya — about 8 occurrences8.6–7.9 Mya — about 8 occurrences7.9–7.2 Mya — about 8 occurrences7.2–6.5 Mya — about 8 occurrences6.5–5.8 Mya — about 8 occurrences5.8–5.1 Mya — about 7 occurrences5.1–4.5 Mya — about 5 occurrences4.5–3.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–3.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16.3 Mya9.4 Mya23.5 Mya3.1 Mya

192 occurrences of Aphelops on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

192 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

42 formations

Ash Hollow — 40.50°N, 100.50°WAsh Hollow — 42.60°N, 98.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.80°N, 100.80°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 101.89°WAsh Hollow — 41.20°N, 101.80°WAsh Hollow — 41.40°N, 102.40°WAsh Hollow — 43.20°N, 100.70°WAsh Hollow — 43.40°N, 100.60°WAsh Hollow — 42.80°N, 99.70°WAsh Hollow — 42.70°N, 100.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.63°N, 100.05°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WValentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WValentine — 42.80°N, 99.70°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 40.10°N, 98.50°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.70°N, 102.50°WFleming — 30.72°N, 95.28°WFleming — 31.00°N, 93.67°WFleming — 30.61°N, 95.13°WFleming — 31.10°N, 93.10°WFleming — 30.70°N, 94.70°WFleming — 30.50°N, 95.00°WFleming — 30.80°N, 94.30°WFleming — 31.05°N, 93.21°WOlcott — 42.40°N, 103.80°WOlcott — 42.19°N, 103.73°WSheep Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBarstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°WBarstow — 35.05°N, 117.07°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WAlachua — 29.65°N, 82.60°WAlachua — 29.40°N, 82.60°WAlachua — 29.10°N, 82.30°WTesuque — 35.50°N, 106.20°WTesuque — 36.50°N, 107.00°WTorreya — 30.50°N, 84.50°WOgallala — 39.80°N, 99.40°WOgallala — 38.90°N, 101.70°WOgallala — 37.20°N, 99.90°WTemblor — 36.10°N, 120.40°WTemblor — 35.46°N, 118.92°WTemblor — 35.27°N, 119.31°WPawnee Creek — 40.80°N, 104.20°WSnake Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WCalvert — 38.40°N, 76.50°WCalvert — 38.67°N, 76.53°WJuntura — 43.60°N, 117.50°WEsmeralda — 38.25°N, 117.90°WChamita — 36.50°N, 107.00°WGoliad — 28.49°N, 97.67°WGoliad — 28.60°N, 97.70°WChalk Hills — 42.77°N, 115.92°WChalk Hills — 42.73°N, 115.87°WBox Butte — 42.20°N, 103.10°W"middle Miocene" — 41.30°N, 105.10°WGoodnight Beds — 35.00°N, 101.30°WPawnee Creek Beds — 40.80°N, 103.10°WPeace River — 27.90°N, 81.80°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Aphelops has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 50 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aphelops and its relatives

Miocene

Where Aphelops and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,132 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 190 sites for Aphelops, 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

63 references

Each of the 192 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. 51 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 content2

Picture of Aphelops

Credit
James St. John
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Aphelops sp. · JODA:2559

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 itAceratheriinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1845