Bassariscus

Bassariscus is a genus in the family Procyonidae. There are two extant species in the genus: the ringtail or ring-tailed cat and the cacomistle. Genetic studies have indicated that the closest relatives of Bassariscus are raccoons, from which they diverged about 10 million years ago in the Tortonian Age of the Miocene. The two lineages of Bassariscus are thought to have separated after only another two million years, making it the extant procyonid genus with the earliest diversification. Later diversification in the genus in the Pliocene and Pleistocene saw the emergence of two extinct species, Bassariscus casei and Bassariscus sonoitensis, respectively. Due to the more digitigrade stance of their legs compared to the plantigrade stance of other members of Procyonidae, some taxonomies place the genus as a separate family, Bassaricidae.. The name is a Greek word for fox ("bassaris") with a Latinized diminutive ending ("-iscus"). The genus was named by Elliott Coues in 1887, having previously been described by Lichtenstein in 1830 under the name Bassaris. Coues proposed the word "bassarisk" as the English term for animals in this genus. Its habitat includes semi-arid areas in the southwestern United States, the whole of Mexico, as well as moist tropical forests in Central America.

Bassariscus

Uncredited · Public Domain · 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
Also called
ringtailPBDB
Sits inside
ProcyoniniPBDB
Diet
frugivore, carnivorePBDB, for Procyonidae
Life habit
arborealPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 16 million years on record.

The record covers at least 16.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 51 occurrencesMiocene — about 25 of 51 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 7 of 51 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 15 of 51 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 4 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 4 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 14 occurrences16.3 Mya11.7 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

51 occurrences of Bassariscus on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

51 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

17 formations

Valentine — 42.81°N, 100.05°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WWood Mountain — 49.17°N, 105.99°WWood Mountain — 49.20°N, 106.20°WMascall — 44.09°N, 120.01°WMascall — 44.92°N, 120.18°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WPalm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°WOlcott — 42.08°N, 103.80°WOlcott — 42.40°N, 103.80°WTesuque — 35.50°N, 106.20°WSnake Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WEsmeralda — 38.25°N, 117.90°WVirgin Valley — 41.10°N, 117.80°WKern River — 35.30°N, 118.50°WVerde — 34.77°N, 111.85°WLong Pine — 42.38°N, 98.23°WPanaca — 37.80°N, 114.30°WWhite Narrows — 35.70°N, 115.20°WRingold — 47.00°N, 118.50°WLa Habra — 33.60°N, 117.80°W

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The named rock units Bassariscus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 22 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Bassariscus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Bassariscus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

945 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 50 sites for Bassariscus, 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

36 references

Each of the 51 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. 24 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 Bassariscus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itProcyonini through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Coues 1887