Osbornoceros osborni

Osbornoceros is an extinct artiodactyl genus of the family Antilocapridae. All antilocaprid species are extinct except for the pronghorn. Osbornoceros osborni is the only known species of the genus Osbornoceros. Osbornoceros lived during the Late Miocene around 7 to 6 million years ago in what is now North America. It is well represented in fossil discoveries, with nearly a dozen specimens having been found to date. All come from the Chamita Formation in a quarry near Lyden, New Mexico, the site of numerous other finds such as that of Chamitataxus, a prehistoric badger that lived at the same time. The holotype specimen of Osbornoceros was discovered in 1937 and many more were found nearby during further expeditions.

Osbornoceros osborni

Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com ) · CC BY 2.5 · 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
OsbornocerosPBDB
Diet
browser, grazerPBDB, for Antilocapridae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Antilocapridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At most 4.7 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 9.4 Mya and 4.7 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 3 of 3 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPliocene9.5–9.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.3–9.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.1–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.8–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–8.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.4–8.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.2–8.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.0–7.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.8–7.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.6–7.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.4–7.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.0–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.7–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–6.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.1–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.5–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–5.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.2–5.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.0–4.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.8–4.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.9 Mya4.2 Mya

3 occurrences of Osbornoceros osborni 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

3 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

2 formations

Chamita — 36.09°N, 106.05°WChamita — 36.50°N, 107.00°WPopotosa — 34.80°N, 106.90°W

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The named rock units Osbornoceros osborni has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Osbornoceros osborni and its relatives

Miocene

Where Osbornoceros osborni and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

8 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Osbornoceros osborni, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

3 references

Each of the 3 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 content1

Picture of Osbornoceros osborni

Credit
Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com )
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Osbornoceros osborni was found in Sketchfab.

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 itOsbornoceros through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Frick 1937