Phlaocyon

Phlaocyon is an extinct genus of the Borophaginae subfamily of canids native to North America. It lives from the Early Oligocene to the Early Miocene epoch 33.3–16.3 Mya, existing for approximately 17.3 million years. It is closely related to Cynarctoides.

Phlaocyon

Wortman & Matthew 1899 · 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
PhlaocyoniniPBDB
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 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 29.5 Mya to 18.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 31.8 Mya to 16.3 Mya.

Oligocene — about 10 of 55 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 45 of 55 occurrencesMiocene32–32 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence23–22 Mya — about 3 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 3 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 3 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 3 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 5 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 5 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 5 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 5 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences29.5 Mya18.5 Mya32.3 Mya15.8 Mya

55 occurrences of Phlaocyon 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

55 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

20 formations

Runningwater — 42.75°N, 102.02°WRunningwater — 42.20°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.70°N, 102.50°WRunningwater — 42.80°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.80°N, 100.80°WMarsland — 42.42°N, 103.87°WMarsland — 42.40°N, 103.80°WMarsland — 42.10°N, 105.00°WMarsland — 42.00°N, 104.20°WMarsland — 42.62°N, 104.40°WMarsland — 43.00°N, 104.50°WMarsland — 42.20°N, 103.10°WDelaho — 29.20°N, 103.20°WSespe — 33.83°N, 117.71°WSespe — 33.73°N, 117.72°WSespe — 33.60°N, 117.61°WJohn Day — 44.60°N, 119.62°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.63°WRosebud — 43.18°N, 102.30°WRosebud — 43.30°N, 102.50°WHarrison — 42.40°N, 103.80°WVaqueros — 33.78°N, 117.73°WArcadia — 27.90°N, 82.10°WGering — 43.00°N, 104.50°WTurtle Butte — 43.07°N, 99.83°WCrystal River — 29.75°N, 82.63°WPawnee Creek — 40.90°N, 103.27°WBox Butte — 42.80°N, 103.10°WMarks Head — 29.90°N, 82.10°WAlachua — 29.70°N, 82.60°WOakville — 30.10°N, 96.10°WWildcat Hills Beds — 41.70°N, 103.67°WCarpenter Ranch — 42.27°N, 104.05°WCatahoula — 31.66°N, 88.66°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Phlaocyon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Phlaocyon and its relatives

Miocene

Where Phlaocyon and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

377 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 53 sites for Phlaocyon, 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

19 references

Each of the 55 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. 7 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 content1

Picture of Phlaocyon

Credit
Wortman & Matthew 1899
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Phlaocyon 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 itPhlaocyonini through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Matthew 1899