Daphoenus

Daphoenus is an extinct genus of amphicyonids, a group colloquially known as "bear-dogs". It includes not just some of the best preserved material out of any amphicyonid, but also the earliest members of the family, first appearing in the middle Eocene and surviving into the Early Oligocene. The members of the genus are rather small compared to some of its later relatives, such as Amphicyon or Ysengrinia, ranging in size from comparable to a house cat to a small wolf. It was widely distributed across North America, with most of its remains being discovered in the White River Group of the Great Plains, though the John Day Beds of Oregon and the Cypress Hills Formation in Saskatchewan also represent important fossil sites. Other specimens have been described from localities in Texas, Georgia, Florida, and California.

Daphoenus

James St. John · CC BY 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
Sits inside
DaphoeninaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Amphicyonidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 9.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37 Mya to 27.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 39.7 Mya to 18.5 Mya.

Eocene — about 16 of 78 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 59 of 78 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 3 of 78 occurrencesMiocene40–39 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 1 occurrence39–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–37 Mya — about 2 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 3 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 8 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 14 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 14 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 7 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 3 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 3 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 1 occurrence28–28 Mya — about 1 occurrence28–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–25 Mya — about 1 occurrence25–25 Mya — about 1 occurrence25–24 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37 Mya27.3 Mya40.2 Mya18 Mya

78 occurrences of Daphoenus on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

78 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

10 formations

Brule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 42.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 40.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 46.90°N, 102.80°WBrule — 43.90°N, 102.40°WBrule — 43.85°N, 102.50°WBrule — 43.60°N, 102.45°WBrule — 43.50°N, 101.90°WBrule — 43.20°N, 103.20°WBrule — 41.70°N, 103.10°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.65°WJohn Day — 44.55°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.59°N, 119.63°WChadron — 42.40°N, 103.80°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.40°WChadron — 43.60°N, 102.45°WChadron — 46.10°N, 103.30°WChadron — 43.30°N, 102.50°WCypress Hills — 50.00°N, 107.90°WCypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WCypress Hills — 49.60°N, 108.80°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWhite River — 43.00°N, 104.50°WWhite River — 40.10°N, 102.20°WWagon Bed ("Tepee Trail") — 43.20°N, 107.10°WChambers Tuff — 29.90°N, 104.20°W"Oreodon Beds" — 42.40°N, 103.80°WTecuya — 34.92°N, 118.97°WClinchfield — 32.91°N, 83.36°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Daphoenus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Daphoenus and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Daphoenus and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

608 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 72 sites for Daphoenus, 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

28 references

Each of the 78 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. 16 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 Daphoenus

Credit
James St. John
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Daphoenus vetus · fmnh:pm:um1

Smithsonian Open Access 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 itDaphoeninae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Leidy 1853