Macraucheniidae

Macraucheniidae is a family in the extinct South American ungulate order Litopterna, that resembled camelids. They had three functional digits on the fore and hind feet, as well as elongate necks. The family is generally divided up into two subfamilies, Cramaucheniinae and Macraucheniinae. The family shows retraction of the nasal region, most extremely to the top of the skull in derived macraucheniine taxa like Macrauchenia. which has been interpreted to have supported a proboscis, perhaps like that of a saiga antelope to filter dust, or a moose-like prehensile lip. The earliest unambiguous members of the family date to the late Oligocene around 30 million years ago. Polymorphis from the Eocene has historically been placed as a macraucheniid, but this has been doubted. Most early representatives had a body masses in the range of 80–120 kilograms (180–260 lb), though some like Llullataruca were as small as 35–55 kilograms (77–121 lb), and the last representatives of the family from the Pleistocene like Macrauchenia were over 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb). The family reached its apex of diversity during the late Miocene around 10-6 million years ago, before declining to only a few species belong to the genera Macrauchenia and Xenorhinotherium by the Late Pleistocene.

Macraucheniidae

Ivan Iofrida · CC BY-SA 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
LitopternaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Litopterna
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Eutheria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 55 million years on record.

The record covers at least 56 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 57 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 1 of 231 occurrencesEocene — about 17 of 231 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 9 of 231 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 96 of 231 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 37 of 231 occurrencesPleistocene — about 70 of 231 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 3 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 3 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 3 occurrences43–41 Mya — about 2 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 2 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–35 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 3 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 3 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 3 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 6 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 8 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 20 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 5 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 11 occurrences12–9.7 Mya — about 8 occurrences9.7–7.8 Mya — about 10 occurrences7.8–5.8 Mya — about 21 occurrences5.8–3.9 Mya — about 27 occurrences3.9–1.9 Mya — about 21 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 65 occurrences56 Mya11.7 ka58 Mya0 Mya

231 occurrences of Macraucheniidae 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

231 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

69 formations

Santa Cruz — 51.60°S, 69.56°WSanta Cruz — 51.58°S, 69.23°WSanta Cruz — 51.20°S, 69.12°WSanta Cruz — 50.60°S, 69.08°WSanta Cruz — 50.75°S, 69.18°WSanta Cruz — 47.52°S, 71.90°WSanta Cruz — 50.28°S, 70.28°WSanta Cruz — 50.21°S, 69.72°WSarmiento — 45.23°S, 67.49°WSarmiento — 45.33°S, 68.00°WSarmiento — 45.67°S, 68.67°WSarmiento — 44.02°S, 68.02°WSarmiento — 44.67°S, 68.42°WSarmiento — 42.86°S, 67.46°WCerro Azul — 38.77°S, 62.16°WCerro Azul — 37.73°S, 63.53°WCerro Azul — 36.25°S, 65.51°WCerro Azul — 37.13°S, 62.81°WCerro Azul — 36.84°S, 65.28°WItuzaingo — 31.48°S, 60.23°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WEpecuén — 37.22°S, 63.55°WEpecuén — 37.18°S, 62.77°WUmala — 18.83°S, 66.15°WUmala — 18.35°S, 67.93°WUmala — 18.97°S, 66.15°WUmala — 17.08°S, 68.00°WUpper Moquegua — 17.21°S, 71.01°WSolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WSolimoes — 10.93°S, 69.92°WSopas — 30.43°S, 56.45°WSopas — 31.25°S, 57.00°WSopas — 32.05°S, 56.12°WLujan — 36.78°S, 59.87°WLujan — 38.57°S, 58.70°WLujan — 34.60°S, 59.15°WCerro Bandera — 38.92°S, 69.58°WCerro Bandera — 38.88°S, 69.47°WDolores — 34.42°S, 56.26°WDolores — 34.27°S, 55.99°WDolores — 34.38°S, 57.88°WPuerto Madryn — 42.83°S, 63.82°WPuerto Madryn — 42.78°S, 63.68°WLa Victoria — 3.20°N, 75.20°WLa Victoria — 3.25°N, 75.13°WLa Victoria — 3.37°N, 75.15°WAisol — 34.97°S, 68.54°WAisol — 34.91°S, 68.50°WIpururo — 10.63°S, 73.92°WIpururo — 10.40°S, 73.52°WIrene — 38.63°S, 60.61°WTarija — 21.53°S, 64.73°WTarija — 21.50°S, 64.75°WNuapua — 20.75°S, 63.07°WNuapua — 20.87°S, 63.07°WGalera — 46.90°S, 72.30°WLas Flores — 45.60°S, 69.08°WLas Flores — 45.40°S, 67.18°WUquía — 23.33°S, 65.33°WAndalhuala — 26.68°S, 66.03°WAndalhuala — 27.22°S, 66.93°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Macraucheniidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 45 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 77 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Macraucheniidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Macraucheniidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,662 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 161 sites for Macraucheniidae, 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

130 references

Each of the 231 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. 118 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 Macraucheniidae

Credit
Ivan Iofrida
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itLitopterna through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ameghino 1889