Mesocyon

Mesocyon is an extinct genus of the Hesperocyoninae subfamily of early canids native to North America. It lived from the Oligocene to Early Miocene, 30.3—20.3 Ma, existing for approximately 10 million years. Fossils are known from Oregon, southern California and the northern Great Plains. It was roughly coyote-sized, and the first known canid to have a primarily meat-based diet.

Mesocyon

Ted Fremd · Public Domain · 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
HesperocyoninaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Canidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Canidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 13 million years on record.

The record covers at least 31.8 Mya to 18.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 16.3 Mya.

Eocene — about 0 of 31 occurrencesOligocene — about 28 of 31 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 3 of 31 occurrencesMiocene34–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 3 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 4 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 4 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 3 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–28 Mya — about 1 occurrence28–28 Mya — about 1 occurrence28–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–26 Mya — about 2 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 1 occurrence24–24 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31.8 Mya18.5 Mya34.4 Mya15.8 Mya

31 occurrences of Mesocyon on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

31 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

7 formations

Brule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 43.90°N, 102.40°WBrule — 43.50°N, 101.90°WBrule — 41.70°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.20°N, 103.20°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.65°WJohn Day — 44.90°N, 120.20°WJohn Day — 44.61°N, 119.57°WSharps — 43.30°N, 102.50°WSespe — 34.25°N, 118.96°WSespe — 33.73°N, 117.72°WWhite River — 40.80°N, 103.10°WOtay — 32.90°N, 117.10°WHarrison — 42.40°N, 103.80°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mesocyon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mesocyon and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Mesocyon and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

201 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 30 sites for Mesocyon, 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

7 references

Each of the 31 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. 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 Mesocyon

Credit
Ted Fremd
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itHesperocyoninae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Scott 1890