Nimravus

Nimravus is an extinct genus of "false" saber-toothed cat that lived in North America and Eurasia during the Eocene and Oligocene epochs 35.3—27.1 mya, existing for approximately 7.9 million years. Not closely related to true saber-toothed cats, they evolved a similar form through parallel evolution. Fossils have been uncovered from western U.S. from Oregon to Southern California and Nebraska, and also from Eurasia from France to Mongolia.

Nimravus

Edward Drinker Cope · 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
NimraviniPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Nimravidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Nimravidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 6.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 27.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 37.71 Mya to 18.5 Mya.

Eocene — about 3 of 36 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 31 of 36 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 2 of 36 occurrencesMiocene38–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence33–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence33–32 Mya — about 1 occurrence32–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 3 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 3 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 3 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 1 occurrence24–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence23–23 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33.9 Mya27.3 Mya38.2 Mya18 Mya

36 occurrences of Nimravus 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

36 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

11 formations

John Day — 44.60°N, 119.62°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.65°WHsanda Gol — 45.46°N, 101.20°EHsanda Gol — 45.27°N, 101.76°EHsanda Gol — 45.30°N, 102.08°EBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 41.70°N, 103.10°WSharps — 43.30°N, 102.50°WErgilin Dzo — 43.73°N, 111.25°EErgilin Dzo — 43.37°N, 108.66°EGering — 41.70°N, 103.10°WOtay — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSespe — 34.25°N, 118.96°WKrabi Basin B2 — 7.97°N, 99.06°EQuercy Phosphorites — 44.27°N, 1.63°EViens Marl — 43.93°N, 5.68°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Nimravus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 15 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Nimravus and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Nimravus and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

479 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 36 sites for Nimravus, 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

17 references

Each of the 36 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. 5 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 Nimravus

Credit
Edward Drinker Cope
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Nimravus brachyops · LACM:9384

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 itNimravini through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1879