Hypsiops

Hypsiops is an extinct genus of oreodont of the family Merycoidodontidae endemic to North America. They lived during the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene epochs, 20.4—16.0 mya, existing for approximately 4 million years. Fossils have been uncovered throughout the western U.S. in Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska.

Hypsiops

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
MerycochoerinaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Merycoidodontidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Merycoidodontidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At least 4.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 18.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 29.5 Mya to 16.3 Mya.

Oligocene — about 4 of 13 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 9 of 13 occurrencesMiocene30–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23.04 Mya18.5 Mya30 Mya15.8 Mya

13 occurrences of Hypsiops 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

13 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

2 formations

John Day — 44.70°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.90°N, 120.20°WRenova — 46.00°N, 112.00°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Hypsiops has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hypsiops and its relatives

Miocene

Where Hypsiops and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

73 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Hypsiops, 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 13 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. 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 Hypsiops

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

No 3D scan of Hypsiops 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 itMerycochoerinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Schultz and Falkenbach 1950