Pharsophorus

Pharsophorus is an extinct genus of borhyaenoid sparassodont that inhabited South America during the Middle to Late Oligocene epoch.

Pharsophorus

Jonathan Chen · CC BY 4.0 · 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
BorhyaenidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Sparassodonta
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Theria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sparassodonta

Time the record covers

At most 13 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 33.9 Mya and 21 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 0 of 8 occurrencesOligocene — about 6 of 8 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 2 of 8 occurrencesMiocene34–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences34.4 Mya20.5 Mya

8 occurrences of Pharsophorus 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

8 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

3 formations

Sarmiento — 45.23°S, 67.49°WSarmiento — 45.67°S, 68.67°WAgua de la Piedra — 36.55°S, 69.70°WSalla — 17.18°S, 67.63°W

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The named rock units Pharsophorus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pharsophorus and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Pharsophorus and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

185 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Pharsophorus, 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

5 references

Each of the 8 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 Pharsophorus

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pharsophorus 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 itBorhyaenidae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ameghino 1897