Desmocyon

Desmocyon is an extinct genus of the Borophaginae subfamily of canids native to North America. It lived from the Late Oligocene to the Early Miocene, 24.8—16.3 Mya, existing for approximately 8.5 mya. It is a rarely found genus, with fossil deposits only occurring in western Nebraska, Wyoming, New Mexico and north Florida. It is regarded as a primitive, transitional member of the Borophagini tribe.

Desmocyon

Noles1984 · 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
BorophaginiPBDB
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 14 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 29.5 Mya and 16.3 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Oligocene — about 1 of 42 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 41 of 42 occurrencesMiocene30–29 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence23–22 Mya — about 3 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 3 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 3 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 3 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 3 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 3 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 4 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 4 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences30 Mya15.8 Mya

42 occurrences of Desmocyon 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

42 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

9 formations

Runningwater — 42.75°N, 102.02°WRunningwater — 41.70°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.80°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.20°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.80°N, 100.80°WMarsland — 42.40°N, 103.80°WMarsland — 43.00°N, 104.50°WMarsland — 42.10°N, 105.00°WMarsland — 42.00°N, 104.20°WMarsland — 42.62°N, 104.40°WRosebud — 43.30°N, 102.50°WJohn Day — 44.74°N, 119.65°WJohn Day — 44.50°N, 119.30°WHarrison — 42.40°N, 103.80°W? Runningwater — 42.80°N, 103.10°WZia Sand — 35.70°N, 107.00°WWildcat Hills Beds — 41.70°N, 103.67°WVaqueros — 33.78°N, 117.73°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Desmocyon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Desmocyon and its relatives

Miocene

Where Desmocyon and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

164 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 42 sites for Desmocyon, 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

7 references

Each of the 42 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 Desmocyon

Credit
Noles1984
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Desmocyon 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 itBorophagini through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wang et al. 1999