Cynarctoides luskensis
Cynarctoides is an extinct genus of the Borophaginae subfamily of canids endemic to North America. It lived from the Early Oligocene to the Middle Miocene, 33.3—13.6 Mya, existing for approximately 19.7 million years. Seven species are currently recognised, all of which are estimated to have weighed no more than 1 kilogram (2.2 lb).

Ted Fremd · 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- Sits inside
- CynarctoidesPBDB
- 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 most 4.6 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 23.1 Mya and 18.5 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
4 occurrences of Cynarctoides luskensis 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
4 occurrencesThese 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
2 formations
- Marsland Formation · Hemingford Group1
- John Day Formation1
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Cynarctoides luskensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Cynarctoides luskensis and its relatives
MioceneWhere Cynarctoides luskensis and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
26 taxa- Desmocyon thomsoni3 sites
- Merychyus minimus3 sites
- Stenomylus gracilis3 sites
- Daphoenodon falkenbachi2 sites
- Merychyus arenarum2 sites
- Moropus hollandi2 sites
- Pseudoblastomeryx advena2 sites
- Adilophontes brachykolos1 site
- Camelidae1 site
- Cynarctoides acridens1 site
- Dromomerycidae1 site
- Equidae1 site
- Gregorymys riggsi1 site
- Leporidae1 site
- Megalictis ferox1 site
- Menoceras arikarense1 site
- Merycochoerus matthewi1 site
- Merycoides stouti1 site
- Mylagaulodon angulatus1 site
- Osbornodon brachypus1 site
- Paratylopus1 site
- Phenacocoelus kayi1 site
- Phlaocyon minor1 site
- Schizodontomys greeni1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Cynarctoides luskensis, 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
2 references- Phylogenetic systematics of the Borophaginae (Carnivora: Canidae)3
- Geology and paleontology of the upper John Day beds, John Day river valley, Oregon: lithostratigraphic and biochronologic revision in the Haystack Valley and Kimberly areas (Kimberly and Mt. Misery quadrangles)1
Each of the 4 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Cynarctoides luskensis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Ted Fremd
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Cynarctoides luskensis 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 itCynarctoides through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wang et al. 1999