Hemicyon

Hemicyon, also known as the "dog-bear", is an extinct genus of hemicyonine bear, which probably originated in Eurasia but was found in Europe, Asia and North America during the Miocene epoch, existing for approximately 16 to 13 mya. Hemicyon is the best-known genus in the Hemicyoninae, a subfamily intermediate between bears and their Caniform ancestors, but most often classified as bears. Hemicyonine bears should not be confused with Amphicyonids (bear-dogs), which are their own separate family of carnivores.

Hemicyon

Jonathan Chen · CC BY 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
HemicyoninaePBDB
Diet
herbivore, carnivorePBDB, for Ursidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Ursidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 4.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 16.9 Mya to 12.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 27 occurrencesMiocene — about 27 of 27 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 27 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 4 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–10 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.8–9.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences9.2–8.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.6–8.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.0–7.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.3–6.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.7–6.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.1–5.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.5–4.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16.9 Mya12.5 Mya23.5 Mya4.8 Mya

27 occurrences of Hemicyon 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

27 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

3 formations

Ash Hollow — 42.70°N, 100.00°WStudienka — 48.20°N, 17.00°EDetritic-Carbonated Unit of Subirats — 41.42°N, 1.81°E

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The named rock units Hemicyon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 24 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hemicyon and its relatives

Miocene

Where Hemicyon and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

485 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 20 sites for Hemicyon, 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

18 references

Each of the 27 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. 6 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 Hemicyon

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Hemicyon sp. · amnh:fm:25530

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 itHemicyoninae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lartet 1851