Borophaginae

The extinct Borophaginae form one of three subfamilies found within the canid family. The other two canid subfamilies are the extinct Hesperocyoninae and extant Caninae. Borophaginae, called "bone-crushing dogs", were endemic to North America during the Oligocene to Pliocene and lived roughly 34–2.5 million years ago, existing for about 31.5 million years.

Borophaginae

Jeff Kubina from Columbia, Maryland · CC BY-SA 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
Also called
bone-crushing dogPBDB
Sits inside
CanidaePBDB
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 29 million years on record.

The record covers at least 31.8 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 1.4 Mya.

Eocene — about 1 of 1137 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 85 of 1137 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 980 of 1137 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 53 of 1137 occurrencesPleistocene — about 17 of 1137 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 8 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 10 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 15 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 16 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 16 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 12 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 14 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 24 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 24 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 27 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 105 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 109 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 116 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 115 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 116 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 119 occurrences10–8.8 Mya — about 91 occurrences8.8–7.5 Mya — about 49 occurrences7.5–6.1 Mya — about 49 occurrences6.1–4.7 Mya — about 48 occurrences4.7–3.4 Mya — about 21 occurrences3.4–2.0 Mya — about 20 occurrences2.0–607 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences31.8 Mya2.58 Mya41.8 Mya607 ka

1,137 occurrences of Borophaginae 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

1,137 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

125 formations

Ash Hollow — 42.60°N, 98.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.80°N, 100.80°WAsh Hollow — 42.39°N, 98.10°WAsh Hollow — 40.50°N, 100.50°WAsh Hollow — 43.20°N, 100.70°WAsh Hollow — 42.70°N, 100.00°WAsh Hollow — 43.30°N, 102.50°WAsh Hollow — 41.20°N, 101.80°WAsh Hollow — 41.50°N, 103.80°WAsh Hollow — 41.70°N, 103.10°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 101.89°WAsh Hollow — 43.40°N, 100.60°WAsh Hollow — 42.80°N, 99.70°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WAsh Hollow — 41.10°N, 103.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.63°N, 100.05°WAsh Hollow — 42.70°N, 102.50°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 105.10°WValentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WValentine — 42.49°N, 98.11°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.60°N, 98.00°WValentine — 42.81°N, 100.05°WValentine — 42.70°N, 102.50°WValentine — 42.80°N, 99.70°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WRunningwater — 42.80°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.75°N, 102.02°WRunningwater — 42.20°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 41.70°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.70°N, 102.50°WRunningwater — 42.37°N, 103.32°WRunningwater — 42.80°N, 100.80°WBarstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°WBarstow — 35.05°N, 117.07°WBarstow — 35.07°N, 117.08°WOlcott — 42.40°N, 103.80°WOlcott — 42.19°N, 103.73°WSharps — 43.30°N, 102.50°WTesuque — 36.50°N, 107.00°WTesuque — 35.50°N, 106.20°WMarsland — 42.40°N, 103.80°WMarsland — 42.42°N, 103.87°WMarsland — 43.00°N, 104.50°WMarsland — 42.10°N, 105.00°WMarsland — 42.00°N, 104.20°WMarsland — 42.62°N, 104.40°WMarsland — 42.20°N, 103.10°WArikaree — 43.20°N, 107.10°WArikaree — 43.20°N, 108.20°WSnake Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 43.90°N, 102.40°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 43.50°N, 101.90°WBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 43.20°N, 103.20°WBrule — 41.70°N, 103.10°WBrule — 41.50°N, 103.80°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.60°N, 119.62°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.65°WJohn Day — 44.50°N, 119.30°WJohn Day — 44.83°N, 119.74°WWood Mountain — 49.20°N, 106.20°WWood Mountain — 49.17°N, 105.99°WPeace River — 27.90°N, 81.80°WPeace River — 27.70°N, 81.85°WPeace River — 27.68°N, 81.95°WSheep Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WOgallala — 35.70°N, 102.30°WOgallala — 36.10°N, 99.80°WOgallala — 36.70°N, 101.40°WOgallala — 38.90°N, 101.70°WOgallala — 35.40°N, 101.40°WOgallala — 37.20°N, 99.90°WOgallala — 35.68°N, 99.60°WOgallala — 35.54°N, 99.86°WZia Sand — 35.70°N, 107.00°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WAlachua — 29.65°N, 82.60°WAlachua — 29.40°N, 82.60°WAlachua — 29.10°N, 82.30°WAlachua — 29.70°N, 82.60°WPawnee Creek — 40.80°N, 104.20°WPawnee Creek — 40.90°N, 103.27°WFleming — 30.61°N, 95.13°WFleming — 30.75°N, 95.27°WFleming — 30.59°N, 94.91°WFleming — 30.70°N, 94.70°WFleming — 30.50°N, 95.00°WFleming — 30.30°N, 95.70°WDove Spring — 35.30°N, 118.50°WDove Spring — 35.37°N, 117.99°WHarrison — 43.30°N, 102.50°WHarrison — 42.00°N, 104.20°WHarrison — 43.00°N, 104.50°WHarrison — 42.40°N, 103.80°WTemblor — 35.44°N, 118.88°WTemblor — 36.10°N, 120.40°WTemblor — 35.46°N, 118.92°WTemblor — 36.54°N, 120.55°WEsmeralda — 38.25°N, 117.90°WEsmeralda — 37.96°N, 118.03°W

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The named rock units Borophaginae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 101 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 235 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Borophaginae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Borophaginae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

954 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 757 sites for Borophaginae, and this reads 240 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

160 references

Each of the 1,137 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. 148 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 Borophaginae

Credit
Jeff Kubina from Columbia, Maryland
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Borophaginae 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 itCanidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Simpson 1945