Plithocyon

Plithocyon is an extinct genus of hemicyonine bear of the Miocene epoch, endemic to North America and Europe. It lived from ~15.97—11.61 Ma, existing for approximately 4 million years.

Plithocyon

Ghedo · 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
HemicyoninaePBDB
Diet
herbivore, carnivorePBDB, for Ursidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Ursidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 3.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 12.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 19 occurrencesMiocene — about 19 of 19 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 19 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–12 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.8–9.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.2–8.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.6–8.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.0–7.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.3–6.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.7–6.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.1–5.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.5–4.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15.98 Mya12.5 Mya23.5 Mya4.8 Mya

19 occurrences of Plithocyon 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

19 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

8 formations

Barstow — 35.05°N, 117.07°WBarstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°WTesuque — 35.50°N, 106.20°WValentine — 42.60°N, 98.00°W"Madison Valley Equivalent" — 45.20°N, 112.00°WXianshuihe — 43.65°N, 112.66°EHujialiang — 35.58°N, 103.42°EAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WCórcoles — 40.47°N, 2.68°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Plithocyon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Plithocyon and its relatives

Miocene

Where Plithocyon and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

506 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Plithocyon, 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

13 references

Each of the 19 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. 1 further reference is 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 Plithocyon

Credit
Ghedo
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Plithocyon was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itHemicyoninae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ginsburg 1955