Castoroides

Castoroides, or the giant beaver, is an extinct genus of enormous, bear-sized beavers that lived in North America during the Pleistocene. Two species are currently recognized, C. dilophidus in the Southeastern United States and C. ohioensis in most of North America. C. leiseyorum was previously described from the Irvingtonian age but is now regarded as an invalid name. All specimens previously described as C. leiseyorum are considered to belong to C. dilophidus.

Castoroides

Uncredited · 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
Also called
giant beaverPBDB
Sits inside
CastoroidiniPBDB
Diet
browserPBDB, for Castoridae
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Castoridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Mass
200 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 4.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 4.7 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 9.4 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 1 of 160 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 160 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 155 of 160 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 160 occurrences9.6–9.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.2–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–8.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.3–7.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.9–7.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.6–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.6–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–5.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.0–4.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.6–4.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.3–4.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.6–3.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.3–3.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.3–2.0 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.6–1.3 Mya — about 6 occurrences1.3–990 ka Mya — about 11 occurrences990 ka–660 ka Mya — about 11 occurrences660 ka–330 ka Mya — about 11 occurrences330 ka–0 Mya — about 106 occurrences4.7 Mya129 ka9.9 Mya0 Mya

160 occurrences of Castoroides 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

160 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

12 formations

Bermont — 28.80°N, 82.20°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WMcPherson — 38.30°N, 97.60°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WFort Thompson — 27.72°N, 82.43°WKingsdown — 37.05°N, 100.50°W"Crooked Creek" — 37.10°N, 100.90°WDon Beds — 43.80°N, 79.30°WSilver Bluff — 32.56°N, 80.29°WWaccamaw — 33.10°N, 80.31°WWando — 33.08°N, 79.94°WCanepatch — 33.68°N, 78.88°WPeace River — 27.90°N, 81.80°WOkeechobee — 27.53°N, 80.47°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Castoroides has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 142 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Castoroides and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Castoroides and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

815 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 156 sites for Castoroides, 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

53 references

Each of the 160 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. 41 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 Castoroides

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
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 itCastoroidini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Foster 1838