Merycodus

Merycodus is an extinct genus of the artiodactyl family Antilocapridae. Fossils of this genus have been found in the Santa Fe Group of New Mexico.

Merycodus

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
AntilocapridaePBDB
Diet
browser, grazerPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Antilocapridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At least 6.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 18.5 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.1 Mya to 4.7 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 94 occurrencesMiocene — about 94 of 94 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 94 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 4 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 4 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 9 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 11 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 11 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 11 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 11 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 11 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 2 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.4–8.7 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences8.7–8.1 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences8.1–7.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences7.4–6.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences6.8–6.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences6.1–5.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.5–4.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.8–4.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18.5 Mya11.63 Mya23.6 Mya4.2 Mya

94 occurrences of Merycodus 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

94 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

25 formations

Valentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WValentine — 42.49°N, 98.11°WValentine — 42.80°N, 99.70°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WBarstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°WBarstow — 35.05°N, 117.07°WBarstow — 35.06°N, 117.08°WWood Mountain — 49.20°N, 106.20°WOlcott — 42.40°N, 103.80°WArikaree — 43.20°N, 108.20°WTesuque — 35.50°N, 106.20°WSheep Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WPawnee Creek — 40.80°N, 104.20°WEsmeralda — 38.25°N, 117.90°WEsmeralda — 37.96°N, 118.03°WNorth Park — 41.80°N, 107.00°WZia Sand — 35.70°N, 107.00°WMint Canyon — 34.47°N, 118.43°WMarsland — 42.40°N, 103.80°W"middle Miocene" — 41.30°N, 105.10°WFort Randall — 43.10°N, 98.30°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 105.10°WEl Camarón — 16.55°N, 96.03°WMadison Valley — 45.93°N, 111.29°WBrowns Park — 40.60°N, 108.10°WHepburn’s Mesa — 45.80°N, 110.50°WSixmile Creek — 45.20°N, 112.00°WGreen Valley — 37.81°N, 121.91°WHector — 34.80°N, 117.00°WSanta Margarita — 35.13°N, 118.82°W

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The named rock units Merycodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. One further formation holds fewer occurrences and is not listed. 17 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Merycodus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Merycodus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

570 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 89 sites for Merycodus, 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

34 references

Each of the 94 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. 22 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 Merycodus

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itAntilocapridae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Leidy 1854