Amphicyon

Amphicyon is an extinct genus of large carnivorans belonging to the family Amphicyonidae, subfamily Amphicyoninae, from the Miocene epoch. Members of this family received their vernacular name for possessing bear-like and dog-like features. They ranged over North America, Eurasia, and Africa.

Amphicyon

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
AmphicyoninaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Amphicyonidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Amphicyonidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Length
2.5 mWikidata
Mass
600 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 17 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Oligocene — about 3 of 131 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 127 of 131 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 131 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 131 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 5 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 7 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 14 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 16 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 18 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 12 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 12 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 13 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 11 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–9.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.8–8.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.9–8.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.1–7.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.2–6.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences6.4–5.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.7–3.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.8–2.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.9–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23.04 Mya5.333 Mya27.8 Mya2.1 Mya

131 occurrences of Amphicyon 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

131 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

39 formations

Runningwater — 42.80°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.20°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.37°N, 103.32°WRunningwater — 42.35°N, 103.53°WRunningwater — 42.56°N, 103.04°WOlcott — 42.40°N, 103.80°WOlcott — 42.19°N, 103.73°WBarstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°WSheep Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WCalvert — 39.20°N, 75.60°WCalvert — 38.60°N, 76.51°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WBrackwater Molasse — 48.48°N, 10.10°EBrackwater Molasse — 48.35°N, 9.86°EManchar — 26.33°N, 67.83°ESables de l'Orleanais — 48.06°N, 2.07°ESables de l'Orleanais — 48.06°N, 2.05°ESables de l'Orleanais — 48.05°N, 1.89°EFleming — 30.50°N, 95.00°WButte Creek — 43.60°N, 117.50°WShanwang — 36.52°N, 118.54°EXiacaowan — 33.45°N, 118.20°EHujialiang — 35.58°N, 103.42°EChinji — 32.68°N, 72.37°ENagri — 32.77°N, 72.50°EPawnee Creek — 40.80°N, 104.20°WTorreya — 30.50°N, 84.50°WAlachua — 29.70°N, 82.60°WOakville — 30.30°N, 95.70°WNorth Park — 39.80°N, 106.60°WDeep River — 46.50°N, 111.00°WTesuque — 35.50°N, 106.20°WTroublesome — 40.06°N, 106.24°WLower Bone Bed — 39.25°N, 8.68°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Amphicyon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 15 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 55 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Amphicyon and its relatives

Miocene

Where Amphicyon and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,637 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 116 sites for Amphicyon, 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

71 references

Each of the 131 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. 59 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 content2

Picture of Amphicyon

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Amphicyon sp. · UCM:Paleontology:UCM:FossilVert:29238

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 itAmphicyoninae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lartet 1836