Amphictis

Amphictis is an extinct genus of ailurids that existed from the Late Oligocene to the Middle Miocene with fossils found in Eurasia and North America with a total of nine described species. The interrelationships of the different species as well as their relationship to the other ailurids is not fully understood. Usually Amphictis is classified in the basal monotypic subfamily Amphictinae, but there is no certainty as the genus could potentially be a paraphyletic with the Oligocene species A. borbonica being a potential sister taxon to the ancestor of the subfamily Ailurinae, while a Middle Miocene clade consisting of an anagenesis line from A. prolongata–to–A. wintershofensis–to–A. cuspida being closer to the ancestry of the now extinct Simocyoninae. This is due to the nature of their plesiomorphic nature of their anatomy.

Amphictis

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 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
AiluridaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Carnivora
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Carnivora
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 15.98 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 7.246 Mya.

Oligocene — about 5 of 17 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 12 of 17 occurrencesMiocene28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence23–22 Mya — about 3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.6–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.2–7.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.4–6.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23.04 Mya15.98 Mya27.8 Mya6.7 Mya

17 occurrences of Amphictis 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

17 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

3 formations

Ville — 50.90°N, 6.45°ETörökbálint — 47.63°N, 18.71°EBelgrade — 34.89°N, 77.23°W

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The named rock units Amphictis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Amphictis and its relatives

Miocene

Where Amphictis and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

412 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Amphictis, 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

10 references

Each of the 17 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. 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 Amphictis

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Amphictis 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 itAiluridae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Pomel 1853