Macraucheniinae

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.

Macraucheniinae

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
MacraucheniidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Litopterna
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Eutheria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.5 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 132 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 132 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 132 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 35 of 132 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 30 of 132 occurrencesPleistocene — about 65 of 132 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 8 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 18 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 21 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 19 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 60 occurrences15.5 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

132 occurrences of Macraucheniinae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

132 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

44 formations

Cerro 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°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°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°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°WDolores — 34.42°S, 56.26°WDolores — 34.27°S, 55.99°WDolores — 34.38°S, 57.88°WTarija — 21.53°S, 64.73°WTarija — 21.50°S, 64.75°WNuapua — 20.75°S, 63.07°WNuapua — 20.87°S, 63.07°WAndalhuala — 26.68°S, 66.03°WAndalhuala — 27.22°S, 66.93°WArroyo Chasico — 38.64°S, 63.00°WArroyo Chasicó — 38.62°S, 62.98°WArroyo Seco — 38.27°S, 57.85°WEntre Rios — 33.72°S, 59.25°WSaldungaray — 38.77°S, 62.16°WUlloma — 17.42°S, 68.50°WSolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WLa Paz — 16.50°S, 68.15°WRemedios — 18.35°S, 67.68°WCharana — 17.30°S, 69.25°WSan Sebastian — 13.52°S, 71.98°WVorohué — 38.03°S, 57.72°WAgua Blanca — 38.48°S, 61.80°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Macraucheniinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 20 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 50 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Macraucheniinae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Macraucheniinae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

963 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 101 sites for Macraucheniinae, 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

78 references

Each of the 132 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. 66 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 Macraucheniinae

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

No 3D scan of Macraucheniinae 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 itMacraucheniidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gervais 1855)