Amphicyonidae

Amphicyonidae is an extinct family of terrestrial carnivorans belonging to the suborder Caniformia. They first appeared in North America in the middle Eocene, spread to Europe by the late Eocene, and further spread to Asia and Africa by the early Miocene. Amphicyonids were among the first lineages of carnivorans to reach large body sizes. The family had largely disappeared worldwide by the late Miocene, with the latest recorded species at the end of the Miocene in Africa. Amphicyonids are colloquially referred to as "bear-dogs".

Amphicyonidae

Ghedoghedo · 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
bear-dogPBDB
Sits inside
CaniformiaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 42 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 631 occurrencesEocene — about 83 of 631 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 109 of 631 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 437 of 631 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 631 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 631 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 1 occurrence40–39 Mya — about 6 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 15 occurrences37–35 Mya — about 39 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 41 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 31 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 10 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 9 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 15 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 16 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 26 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 35 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 59 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 95 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 78 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 70 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 39 occurrences11–8.9 Mya — about 28 occurrences8.9–7.1 Mya — about 9 occurrences7.1–5.2 Mya — about 6 occurrences5.2–3.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.4–1.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences48.07 Mya5.333 Mya57 Mya2 Mya

631 occurrences of Amphicyonidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

631 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

106 formations

Brule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 42.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 40.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 46.90°N, 102.80°WBrule — 43.90°N, 102.40°WBrule — 43.85°N, 102.50°WBrule — 43.60°N, 102.45°WBrule — 43.50°N, 101.90°WBrule — 43.20°N, 103.20°WBrule — 41.70°N, 103.10°WBrule — 41.66°N, 103.72°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.60°N, 119.62°WJohn Day — 44.90°N, 120.20°WJohn Day — 44.50°N, 119.30°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.65°WJohn Day — 44.20°N, 120.50°WJohn Day — 44.78°N, 119.58°WJohn Day — 44.83°N, 119.74°WJohn Day — 44.55°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.65°N, 119.65°WJohn Day — 44.95°N, 120.49°WJohn Day — 44.78°N, 119.39°WRunningwater — 42.75°N, 102.02°WRunningwater — 41.70°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.40°N, 103.80°WRunningwater — 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°WRunningwater — 42.70°N, 102.50°WChadron — 43.60°N, 102.45°WChadron — 42.40°N, 103.80°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.10°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.40°WChadron — 42.90°N, 105.20°WChadron — 45.47°N, 112.62°WChadron — 46.10°N, 103.30°WChadron — 43.30°N, 102.50°WChadron — 42.00°N, 104.20°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 42.70°N, 102.50°WValentine — 43.20°N, 99.80°WValentine — 42.60°N, 98.00°WMarsland — 42.42°N, 103.87°WMarsland — 42.40°N, 103.80°WMarsland — 42.10°N, 105.00°WMarsland — 42.62°N, 104.40°WMarsland — 42.00°N, 104.20°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWhite River — 40.80°N, 103.10°WWhite River — 43.00°N, 104.50°WWhite River — 40.10°N, 102.20°WOlcott — 42.40°N, 103.80°WOlcott — 42.19°N, 103.73°WAsh Hollow — 42.80°N, 100.80°WAsh Hollow — 42.39°N, 98.10°WAsh Hollow — 42.60°N, 98.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.70°N, 100.00°WAsh Hollow — 43.20°N, 100.70°WAsh Hollow — 43.40°N, 100.60°WAsh Hollow — 42.80°N, 99.70°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WBarstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°WBarstow — 35.05°N, 117.07°WSheep Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WCypress Hills — 50.00°N, 107.90°WCypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WCypress Hills — 49.80°N, 109.00°WCypress Hills — 49.60°N, 108.80°WBrackwater Molasse — 48.48°N, 10.10°EBrackwater Molasse — 48.35°N, 9.86°EHarrison — 43.00°N, 104.50°WHarrison — 42.40°N, 103.80°WHarrison — 42.67°N, 104.07°WCalvert — 38.40°N, 76.50°WCalvert — 39.20°N, 75.60°WCalvert — 38.60°N, 76.51°WCalvert — 37.66°N, 77.11°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WGoliad — 28.60°N, 97.70°WGoliad — 28.34°N, 97.96°WGoliad — 28.53°N, 97.74°WFleming — 30.70°N, 94.70°WFleming — 30.50°N, 95.00°WFleming — 31.00°N, 93.40°WZia Sand — 35.70°N, 107.00°WXianshuihe — 43.65°N, 112.66°EXianshuihe — 36.23°N, 103.61°EXianshuihe — 36.19°N, 103.45°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°ERenova — 45.20°N, 112.00°WRenova — 46.00°N, 112.00°WRenova — 45.90°N, 112.25°WButte Creek — 43.60°N, 117.50°WElisabeth Bay — 26.98°S, 15.27°E

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The named rock units Amphicyonidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 82 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 220 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Amphicyonidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Amphicyonidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,748 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 457 sites for Amphicyonidae, and this reads 240 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

214 references

Each of the 631 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. 202 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 Amphicyonidae

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Amphicyonidae 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 itCaniformia through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Trouessart 1885