Cuvieronius

Cuvieronius is an extinct New World genus of gomphothere which ranged from southern North America to northwestern South America during the Pleistocene epoch. Reaching a shoulder height of 2.3 m and a body mass of 3.5 t (7,700 lb), it was comparable in size to an Asian elephant. Cuvieronius inhabited subtropical and tropical latitudes in environments ranging from grasslands to tropical rainforest. Among the last gomphotheres along with the South American Notiomastodon, it became extinct as part of the end Pleistocene-extinction event, approximately 12–11,000 years ago, along with most other large mammals in the Americas. The extinctions followed the arrival of humans to the Americas, and evidence has been found for human hunting of Cuvieronius, which may have been a factor in its extinction.

Cuvieronius

Ghedo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
GomphotheriidaePBDB
Diet
browserPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

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 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 88 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 8 of 88 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 79 of 88 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 88 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 1 occurrence4.3–4.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.0–3.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.6–3.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.3–3.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.0–2.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.6–2.3 Mya — about 4 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 8 occurrences990 ka–660 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences660 ka–330 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences330 ka–0 Mya — about 37 occurrences4.7 Mya129 ka9.9 Mya0 Mya

88 occurrences of Cuvieronius 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

88 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

16 formations

Bermont — 28.80°N, 82.20°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WBermont — 26.90°N, 82.00°WBermont — 27.00°N, 82.20°WTamiami — 26.90°N, 82.00°WTamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WTamiami — 27.30°N, 80.80°WSt. David — 31.97°N, 110.30°WSt. David — 32.00°N, 110.20°WCamp Rice — 32.00°N, 106.70°WWaccamaw — 33.97°N, 78.39°WWaccamaw — 33.10°N, 80.31°WPanaca — 37.80°N, 114.30°WCuscatlán — 13.75°N, 88.83°WCaloosahatchee — 27.04°N, 81.82°WSeymour — 33.75°N, 99.50°WUlloma — 17.42°S, 68.50°WTarija — 21.53°S, 64.73°WTen Mile Hills Beds — 32.98°N, 80.17°WWando — 32.88°N, 80.10°WCaujarao — 11.48°N, 69.54°WDeweyville — 30.03°N, 95.85°WChapala — 20.30°N, 103.20°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cuvieronius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 63 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cuvieronius and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Cuvieronius and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

649 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 82 sites for Cuvieronius, 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

45 references

Each of the 88 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. 33 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 Cuvieronius

Credit
Ghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

MorphoSource was 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 itGomphotheriidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Osborn 1923