Sespia

Sespia is an extinct genus of oreodont endemic to North America. They lived during the Late Oligocene 26.3—24.8 mya, existing for approximately 1.5 million years. Sespia was cat to goat-sized and desert-dwelling. The genus was closely related to the larger Leptauchenia.

Sespia

Owen Allen · CC BY 2.0 · 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
LeptaucheniinaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Merycoidodontidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Merycoidodontidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At least 4.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 29.5 Mya to 24.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 31.8 Mya to 18.5 Mya.

Oligocene — about 34 of 49 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 15 of 49 occurrencesMiocene32–31 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 0.5 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 3 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 3 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 3 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 3 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 3 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 3 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 3 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 3 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 3 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 2 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence29.5 Mya24.7 Mya32.3 Mya18 Mya

49 occurrences of Sespia 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

49 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

Gering — 41.70°N, 103.10°WGering — 41.50°N, 103.80°WGering — 43.00°N, 104.50°WGering — 41.80°N, 103.80°WSespe — 34.30°N, 119.00°WSespe — 33.73°N, 117.72°WBrule — 42.00°N, 104.20°WBrule — 41.70°N, 103.10°WHarrison — 42.00°N, 104.20°WSharps — 43.50°N, 101.90°WSharps — 43.30°N, 102.50°WOtay — 32.90°N, 117.10°WCypress Hills — 49.60°N, 108.80°WBrown Siltstone Beds — 42.40°N, 103.80°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Sespia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 17 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sespia and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Sespia and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

161 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 47 sites for Sespia, 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

14 references

Each of the 49 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. 2 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 Sespia

Credit
Owen Allen
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sespia 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 itLeptaucheniinae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Stock 1930)