Hesperocyoninae

The extinct Hesperocyoninae are one of three subfamilies found within the canid family. The other two canid subfamilies are the extinct Borophaginae and extant Caninae.

Hesperocyoninae

Karl A. Zittel · 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
CanidaePBDB
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 least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 39.7 Mya to 16.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 45.9 Mya to 12.5 Mya.

Eocene — about 60 of 327 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 205 of 327 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 63 of 327 occurrencesMiocene47–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 16 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 21 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 23 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 56 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 47 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 19 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 17 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 11 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 12 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 13 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 13 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 11 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 10 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 9 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 9 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 9 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 9 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 9 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence39.7 Mya16.3 Mya46.6 Mya11.8 Mya

327 occurrences of Hesperocyoninae 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

327 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

28 formations

Brule — 42.90°N, 105.20°WBrule — 42.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 40.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.90°N, 102.40°WBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 46.90°N, 102.80°WBrule — 42.00°N, 104.20°WBrule — 41.80°N, 103.80°WBrule — 46.40°N, 103.30°WBrule — 43.50°N, 101.90°WBrule — 41.70°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.20°N, 103.20°WBrule — 43.75°N, 101.94°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.60°N, 119.62°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.65°WJohn Day — 44.90°N, 120.20°WSharps — 43.30°N, 102.50°WSharps — 43.50°N, 101.90°WChadron — 42.40°N, 103.80°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.10°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.40°WChadron — 45.47°N, 112.62°WChadron — 46.10°N, 103.30°WChadron — 43.30°N, 102.50°WChadron — 42.75°N, 103.65°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WWhite River — 40.80°N, 103.10°WWhite River — 42.00°N, 104.20°WWhite River — 40.97°N, 106.22°WHarrison — 43.30°N, 102.50°WHarrison — 42.00°N, 104.20°WHarrison — 42.40°N, 103.80°WHarrison — 43.00°N, 104.50°WRenova — 45.00°N, 112.80°WRenova — 46.00°N, 112.00°WRenova — 45.90°N, 112.25°WRenova — 46.40°N, 112.80°WCypress Hills — 50.20°N, 107.60°WCypress Hills — 50.00°N, 107.90°WCypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WCypress Hills — 49.80°N, 109.00°WCypress Hills — 49.60°N, 108.80°WGering — 41.70°N, 103.10°WGering — 43.00°N, 104.50°WRunningwater — 42.75°N, 102.02°WRunningwater — 41.70°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.80°N, 103.10°WSheep Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WMarsland — 42.10°N, 105.00°WMarsland — 42.00°N, 104.20°WMarsland — 42.62°N, 104.40°WBarstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°WMonroe Creek — 43.30°N, 102.50°WOlcott — 42.19°N, 103.73°WOlcott — 42.40°N, 103.80°WSespe — 34.25°N, 118.96°WSespe — 33.73°N, 117.72°WCapote Mountain Tuff — 29.90°N, 104.20°WSage Creek — 45.00°N, 112.80°WCook Ranch — 45.00°N, 112.80°WOtay — 32.90°N, 117.10°WTurtle Butte — 43.07°N, 99.83°WDelaho — 29.20°N, 103.20°WBox Butte — 42.20°N, 103.10°WTorreya — 30.61°N, 84.25°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Hesperocyoninae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 94 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hesperocyoninae and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Hesperocyoninae and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

866 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 288 sites for Hesperocyoninae, and this reads 240 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

56 references

Each of the 327 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. 44 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 Hesperocyoninae

Credit
Karl A. Zittel
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Hesperocyoninae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itCanidae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Tedford 1978