Anacodon

Anacodon is a genus of arctocyonid from the Eocene of North America. It is known from the type species, A. ursidens, a second species, A. cultridens, and a possible third, A. nexus. Initially believed to be a relative of Phenacodon, it was subsequently found to be an arctocyonid, possibly related to Claenodon. Anacodon was extremely robust compared to other members of its family, and may have been capable of climbing and digging like modern bears.

Anacodon

via iDigBio · via iDigBio. 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
ArctocyonidaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Arctocyonidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Arctocyonidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 1.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 57.5 Mya to 56 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 60.9 Mya to 48.07 Mya.

Paleocene — about 1 of 29 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 28 of 29 occurrencesEocene61–60 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences60–60 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences60–60 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 3 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 3 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 3 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 3 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 3 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 3 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 3 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 3 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 3 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 3 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57.5 Mya – 56 Mya61.4 Mya47.6 Mya

29 occurrences of Anacodon on record. 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

29 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

4 formations

Willwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.42°N, 108.69°WWillwood — 44.44°N, 108.63°WWillwood — 44.49°N, 108.81°WWillwood — 44.52°N, 108.70°WWillwood — 44.38°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.52°N, 108.65°WFort Union — 45.40°N, 105.60°WWind River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WMargaret — 78.50°N, 82.00°W

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The named rock units Anacodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Found in the same rock

214 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Anacodon, 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

6 references

Each of the 29 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 Anacodon

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Anacodon 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 itArctocyonidae through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1882