Arctotherium

Arctotherium is an extinct genus of short-faced bears endemic to Central and South America from the Late Pliocene to the end of the Late Pleistocene. Arctotherium migrated from North America to South America during the Great American Interchange, following the formation of the Isthmus of Panama during the late Pliocene.

Arctotherium

Rique · CC0 · 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
ArctotheriiniPBDB
Diet
herbivore, carnivorePBDB, for Ursidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Ursidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 1.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.4 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 1 of 30 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 29 of 30 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 30 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.6–1.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.4–1.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.2–1.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.0–867 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences173 ka–0 Mya — about 16 occurrences1.4 Mya129 ka5.2 Mya0 Mya

30 occurrences of Arctotherium 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

30 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

7 formations

Tarija — 21.53°S, 64.73°WTarija — 21.50°S, 64.75°WNuapua — 20.75°S, 63.07°WNuapua — 20.87°S, 63.07°WLujan — 34.60°S, 59.15°WCuscatlán — 13.82°N, 89.19°WTezanos Pinto — 31.41°S, 62.14°WMesa — 9.85°N, 63.33°WSalto Ander Egg — 32.07°S, 60.55°W

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The named rock units Arctotherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 19 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Arctotherium and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Arctotherium and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

244 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Arctotherium, 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

26 references

Each of the 30 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. 14 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 Arctotherium

Credit
Rique
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Arctotherium bonariensis · MUARN:MF3D-71 (prov)

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 itArctotheriini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bravard 1857