Lynx rufus

The bobcat, also known as the wildcat, bay lynx, or red lynx, is one of the four extant species within the medium-sized wild cat genus Lynx. Native to North America, it ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2002, due to its wide distribution and large population. Although it has been hunted extensively both for sport and fur, populations have proven stable, though declining in some areas.

Lynx rufus

Becker1999 (Paul and Cathy) · CC BY 2.0 · 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
Also called
bobcatPBDB
Sits inside
LynxPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Lynx
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Felidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Mass
310 gWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 1.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 4 of 65 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 57 of 65 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 3 of 65 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.4–1.2 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.0–867 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences173 ka–0 Mya — about 35 occurrences1.4 Mya11.7 ka5.2 Mya0 Mya

65 occurrences of Lynx rufus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

65 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

9 formations

Palm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WBermont — 26.90°N, 82.00°WRingold — 47.00°N, 118.50°WTacubaya — 21.80°N, 102.30°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°WTurlock Lake — 37.06°N, 120.20°WBacons Castle — 38.16°N, 76.83°W

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The named rock units Lynx rufus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 51 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lynx rufus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Lynx rufus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,058 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 65 sites for Lynx rufus, 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

45 references

Each of the 65 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. 33 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 content3

Picture of Lynx rufus

Credit
Becker1999 (Paul and Cathy)
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Lynx rufus · PSAL:ARCH

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itLynx through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Schreber 1777)