Puma concolor

The cougar, also called puma, mountain lion, catamount, and panther, is a large feline native to the Americas. It inhabits North, Central and South America, making it the most widely distributed wild, terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most widespread in the world. Its range spans Yukon, British Columbia and Alberta in Canada, the Rocky Mountains and areas in the western United States. Further south, its range extends through Mexico to the Amazon rainforest and the southern Andes Mountains in Patagonia. It is an adaptable generalist species, occurring in most American habitat types. It prefers habitats with dense underbrush and rocky areas for stalking but also lives in open areas.

Puma concolor

National Park Service · 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
Also called
pumaPBDB
Sits inside
PumaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Puma
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Felidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 1.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 5 of 56 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 42 of 56 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 9 of 56 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.0–867 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences173 ka–0 Mya — about 38 occurrences1.4 Mya11.7 ka5.2 Mya0 Mya

56 occurrences of Puma concolor on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

56 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

9 formations

Glenns Ferry — 43.60°N, 116.80°WPalm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSopas — 30.43°S, 56.45°WSopas — 31.25°S, 57.00°W? Tulare — 35.30°N, 118.50°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WTarija — 21.53°S, 64.73°WMiramar — 37.87°S, 57.51°W

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The named rock units Puma concolor has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 41 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Puma concolor and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Puma concolor and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,009 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 54 sites for Puma concolor, 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

47 references

Each of the 56 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. 35 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 content3

Picture of Puma concolor

Credit
National Park Service
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Puma concolor · MCC:MCC:991V

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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

Everything alive alongside itPuma through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1771)