Heptacodon

Heptacodon is an extinct genus of anthracothere endemic to North America during the Paleogene. They were medium to large-sized anthracotheres with distinct facial features, such as short heavy rostrums and robust but simple molars. Heptacodon is a member of the anthracothere subfamily Anthracotheriinae, whose distribution as a whole included North America and Eurasia. However Heptacodon has only been found in North America, with the species H. yeguaensis from Texas representing the oldest known anthracotheres to be found in North America dating to the middle Eocene. Fossils of this genus have been found in the states of North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, and Utah.

Heptacodon

SeismicShrimp · 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
AnthracotheriinaePBDB
Diet
browserPBDB, for Anthracotheriidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Anthracotheriidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At least 5.9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 31.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 29.5 Mya.

Eocene — about 8 of 15 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 7 of 15 occurrencesOligocene49–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence33–32 Mya — about 1 occurrence32–32 Mya — about 1 occurrence32–31 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37.71 Mya31.8 Mya48.6 Mya29 Mya

15 occurrences of Heptacodon on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

15 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

6 formations

Brule — 40.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 43.85°N, 102.50°WBrule — 43.80°N, 103.10°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.40°WChadron — 43.60°N, 102.45°WChadron — 42.00°N, 104.20°WClarno — 44.93°N, 120.42°WCypress Hills — 50.00°N, 107.90°W"Brian Head" — 37.80°N, 111.50°WYegua — 31.13°N, 95.45°W

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The named rock units Heptacodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Heptacodon and its relatives

Eocene

Where Heptacodon and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

276 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Heptacodon, 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

13 references

Each of the 15 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. 1 further reference is 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 Heptacodon

Credit
SeismicShrimp
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Heptacodon 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 itAnthracotheriinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Marsh 1894