Leptaucheniinae

Leptaucheniinae was a taxon of small, goat-like oreodonts with proportionally big heads found throughout North America during the Late Oligocene. Because skeletons of Leptauchenia and Sespia have been found by the literal thousands, they are often quoted as being the most numerous fossil mammals in North America during the Late Oligocene. They had high-crowned, hypsodont teeth which were used to chew gritty vegetation, or alternatively to counteract abrasion caused by ingestion of soil.

Leptaucheniinae

Mr. A · CC BY 3.0 · 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
MerycoidodontidaePBDB
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 9.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 24.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 37 Mya to 18.5 Mya.

Eocene — about 5 of 258 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 206 of 258 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 47 of 258 occurrencesMiocene38–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–35 Mya — about 1 occurrence35–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 3 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 3 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 7 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 20 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 20 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 20 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 16 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 14 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 14 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 14 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 15 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 15 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 15 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 13 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 8 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 8 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 7 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 7 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 7 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 7 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 7 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 7 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 7 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences33.9 Mya24.7 Mya37.5 Mya18 Mya

258 occurrences of Leptaucheniinae 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

258 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

16 formations

Brule — 42.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 42.90°N, 105.20°WBrule — 41.80°N, 103.80°WBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 43.50°N, 101.90°WBrule — 46.40°N, 103.30°WBrule — 43.20°N, 103.20°WBrule — 43.90°N, 102.40°WBrule — 41.70°N, 103.10°WBrule — 42.00°N, 104.20°WGering — 41.30°N, 105.10°WGering — 41.70°N, 103.10°WGering — 41.80°N, 103.80°WGering — 41.50°N, 103.80°WGering — 43.00°N, 104.50°WGering — 41.40°N, 102.40°WSharps — 43.30°N, 102.50°WSharps — 43.50°N, 101.90°WSharps — 43.90°N, 102.40°WSespe — 34.30°N, 119.00°WSespe — 33.73°N, 117.72°WHarrison — 42.00°N, 104.20°WHarrison — 42.40°N, 103.80°WCapote Mountain Tuff — 29.90°N, 104.20°WBrown Siltstone Beds — 42.40°N, 103.80°WDeep River — 46.50°N, 111.00°WChadron — 45.47°N, 112.62°WWhite River — 40.80°N, 103.10°Wprobably Gering — 42.80°N, 103.10°WOtay — 32.90°N, 117.10°WCypress Hills — 49.60°N, 108.80°WMonroe Creek — 43.30°N, 102.50°WClimbing Arrow — 45.93°N, 111.62°WRosebud — 43.18°N, 102.30°W

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The named rock units Leptaucheniinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 78 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Leptaucheniinae and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Leptaucheniinae and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

393 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 181 sites for Leptaucheniinae, 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

37 references

Each of the 258 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. 25 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 Leptaucheniinae

Credit
Mr. A
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Leptaucheniinae 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 itMerycoidodontidae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Schultz and Falkenbach 1940