Menoceras

Menoceras is a genus of extinct, small rhinocerotids endemic to most of southern North America and ranged as far south as Panama during the early Miocene epoch. It lived from around 23.1-12.5 Ma, existing for approximately 10.6 million years.

Menoceras

James St. John · 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
Sits inside
MenoceratinaPBDB
Diet
browserPBDB, for Rhinocerotidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Rhinocerotidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 6.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 16.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 29.5 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Oligocene — about 2 of 57 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 55 of 57 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 57 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 3 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 4 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 4 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 4 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 6 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 11 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 11 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 4 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–9.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.9–9.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.0–8.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.2–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–4.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23.04 Mya16.3 Mya30 Mya4.8 Mya

57 occurrences of Menoceras 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

57 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

20 formations

Marsland — 42.42°N, 103.87°WMarsland — 42.40°N, 103.80°WMarsland — 42.10°N, 105.00°WMarsland — 42.62°N, 104.40°WMarsland — 42.00°N, 104.20°WMarsland — 43.00°N, 104.50°WRunningwater — 42.20°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.80°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.80°N, 100.80°WRunningwater — 41.70°N, 103.10°WHarrison — 42.40°N, 103.80°WOakville — 30.30°N, 95.70°WOakville — 30.10°N, 96.10°WOakville — 30.20°N, 95.90°WZia Sand — 35.70°N, 107.00°WDelaho — 29.20°N, 103.20°WCucaracha — 9.10°N, 79.70°WCucaracha — 9.05°N, 79.67°WVaqueros — 33.78°N, 117.73°WKirkwood — 40.30°N, 74.30°W"middle Miocene" — 41.30°N, 105.10°WPawnee Creek — 40.90°N, 103.28°WPenney Farms — 29.28°N, 82.17°WTorreya — 30.30°N, 84.20°WAlachua — 29.70°N, 82.60°WHector — 34.80°N, 117.00°WJewett — 35.49°N, 118.83°WWildcat Hills Beds — 41.70°N, 103.67°WBatesland — 43.13°N, 101.87°WBox Butte — 42.20°N, 103.10°WBelgrade — 34.89°N, 77.23°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Menoceras has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Menoceras and its relatives

Miocene

Where Menoceras and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

427 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 53 sites for Menoceras, 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

22 references

Each of the 57 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. 10 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 content2

Picture of Menoceras

Credit
James St. John
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Menoceras sp. · amnh:fm:148666

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 itMenoceratina through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Troxell 1921)