Protepicyon raki

Protepicyon is an extinct monospecific genus of the Borophaginae subfamily of canids native to North America. It lived during the Barstovian stage of the Middle Miocene 16.0—13.6 mya. One of the top predators of its time, it was the probable ancestor of the better known Epicyon, and is known from remains in California and New Mexico.

Protepicyon raki

University of California Museum of Paleontology · CC BY 3.0 · 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
ProtepicyonPBDB
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 most 3.8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 16.3 Mya and 12.5 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 5 of 5 occurrencesMiocene16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16.8 Mya12 Mya

5 occurrences of Protepicyon raki 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

5 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

1 formation

Barstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Protepicyon raki and its relatives

Miocene

Where Protepicyon raki and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

22 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Protepicyon raki, 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

2 references

Each of the 5 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Protepicyon raki

Credit
University of California Museum of Paleontology
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Protepicyon raki 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 itProtepicyon through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wang et al. 1999