Dissacus

Dissacus is a paraphyletic extinct genus of faunivore jackal to coyote-sized Mesonychidae, a family of hoofed mammals part of the extinct order Mesonychia. Their fossils in Early Paleocene to Middle Eocene aged strata in Eurasia and North America. Dissacus europaeus likely evolved from a population of North America Dissacus that migrated to Europe, and first appeared in European strata in the Thanetian. A phylogenetic analysis of European mesonychids suggests that Dissacus was part of an early diversification of species in the Paleocene, and other genera diversified in a later episode in the early Eocene. D. europaeus survived the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, a period of severe global warming, which suggests it had flexible habits. Orientation patch analysis of the molar teeth of the North American D. praenuntius suggests its faunivore with consisted diet consisting of meat, although it wasn’t a hypercarnivore such a felid or weasel, instead having a diet similar to brown hyenas where insects and plant matter made up a small proportion of its diet. It shared its environment with other omnivorous mammals of a similar body size such as Palaeonictis, although Dissacus had a greater preference of meat.

Dissacus

Geisler, J.H. and McKenna, M.C. · 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
MesonychidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Mesonychidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Mesonychidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 7.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 63.4 Mya to 56 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 48.07 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 97 occurrencesPaleocene — about 67 of 97 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 30 of 97 occurrencesEocene67–66 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences65–65 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences65–64 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences64–63 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences63–63 Mya — about 4 occurrences63–62 Mya — about 4 occurrences62–61 Mya — about 4 occurrences61–61 Mya — about 3 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 3 occurrences60–60 Mya — about 3 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 3 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 4 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 4 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 11 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 13 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 10 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 3 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 3 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 3 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 3 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 3 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 3 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 3 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 1 occurrence50–49 Mya — about 1 occurrence49–49 Mya — about 1 occurrence49–48 Mya — about 1 occurrence48–48 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences63.4 Mya56 Mya66.5 Mya47.6 Mya

97 occurrences of Dissacus on record, most of them in the Paleocene. 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

97 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

26 formations

Fort Union — 41.30°N, 107.74°WFort Union — 45.80°N, 109.80°WFort Union — 41.70°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.72°N, 108.38°WFort Union — 44.91°N, 108.93°WFort Union — 45.20°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.30°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.66°N, 108.30°WFort Union — 44.81°N, 108.84°WFort Union — 44.96°N, 109.01°WFort Union — 41.83°N, 108.60°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 43.95°N, 107.57°WWillwood — 44.53°N, 108.32°WWillwood — 44.61°N, 108.33°WWillwood — 44.63°N, 108.40°WWillwood — 44.66°N, 108.77°WWillwood — 44.66°N, 108.85°WWillwood — 44.16°N, 107.87°WNacimiento — 36.30°N, 108.20°WNacimiento — 35.70°N, 107.00°WNacimiento — 36.18°N, 107.58°WNacimiento — 36.27°N, 107.76°WNomogen — 43.53°N, 111.73°ENomogen — 43.15°N, 111.58°ENomogen — 43.37°N, 110.75°EHanna — 41.80°N, 107.00°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 110.70°WWasatch — 41.27°N, 110.33°WDeBeque — 39.20°N, 108.20°WNaran Bulak — 44.62°N, 106.18°ENaran Bulak — 43.47°N, 100.45°EShanghu — 25.12°N, 114.30°EShanghu — 25.08°N, 114.17°ELudlow — 46.40°N, 103.30°WGoler — 35.50°N, 117.77°W"Fort Union" (= Lebo) — 45.80°N, 109.80°WMelville — 45.80°N, 109.80°WLower Variegated Sequence — 43.90°N, 110.80°WLas Tetas de Cabra — 28.68°N, 114.08°WPaskapoo — 53.23°N, 114.70°WLingcha — 27.08°N, 112.95°ETienen — 50.33°N, 4.28°EArshanto — 40.00°N, 111.00°EShuangtasi — 30.97°N, 118.75°EDoumu — 30.76°N, 116.55°EGrès d'Assignan — 43.33°N, 2.62°EZaoshi — 26.70°N, 113.50°EWutu — 36.52°N, 118.92°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Dissacus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 30 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dissacus and its relatives

Paleocene

Where Dissacus and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.

Found in the same rock

963 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 93 sites for Dissacus, 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

44 references

Each of the 97 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. 32 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 content1

Picture of Dissacus

Credit
Geisler, J.H. and McKenna, M.C.
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itMesonychidae through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1881