Axis
Axis is a genus of deer occurring in South and Southeast Asia. As presently defined by most authorities, four species are placed in the genus. Three of the four species are called hog deer. The genus name is a word mentioned in Pliny the Elder's Natural History.

L. Shyamal · CC BY 2.5 · 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
- CerviniPBDB
- Diet
- grazerPBDB
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Cervidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla
Time the record covers
At least 5.2 million years on record.
The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 11.7 ka.
19 occurrences of Axis on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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
19 occurrences- Miocene5%
- Pliocene21%
- Pleistocene74%
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
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The named rock units Axis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 15 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Axis and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Axis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
266 taxa- Cervus unicolor8 sites
- Muntiacus muntjak5 sites
- Sus scrofa5 sites
- Antilope cervicapra4 sites
- Bos sauveli4 sites
- Bubalus4 sites
- Canis4 sites
- Elephas4 sites
- Equus4 sites
- Rhinoceros sondaicus4 sites
- Sus4 sites
- Bos3 sites
- Bos namadicus3 sites
- Bubalus bubalis3 sites
- Cervus duvauceli3 sites
- Crocuta crocuta3 sites
- Equus namadicus3 sites
- Felis3 sites
- Macaca3 sites
- Panthera tigris3 sites
- Rhinoceros unicornis3 sites
- Stegodon insignis3 sites
- Sus barbatus3 sites
- Ursus thibetanus3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Axis, 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
11 references- Large mammal fossil occurrences and associated archaeological evidence in Pleistocene contexts of peninsular India and Sri Lanka7
- The section of Torre Picchio (Terni, Umbria, Central Italy): A Villafranchian site rich in vertebrates, molluscs, ostracods and plants.2
- Die fossilen Saugethiere Chinas nebst einer Odontographie der recenten Antilopen2
- The Middle Pleistocene vertebrate fauna from Khok Sung (Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand): biochronological and paleobiogeographical implications1
- A Pleistocene mammal assemblage containing Ailuropoda and Pongo from Tham Prakai Phet cave, Chaiyaphum Province, Thailand1
- New well-preserved material of Lynx issiodorensis valdarnensis (Felidae, Mammalia) from the Early Pleistocene of Pantalla (central Italy)1
- The Middle Pleistocene mammalian fauna from Tam Hang karstic deposit, northern Laos: New data and evolutionary hypothesis1
- Upper Cenozoic bio-magnetic stratigraphy of Central Asian mammalian localities1
- Extension of the geographic distribution of the giant panda (Ailuropoda) and search for the reasons for its progressive disappearance in Southeast Asia during the Latest Middle Pleistocene1
- Identification of the Yuanmou fossil-man strata; study of the Yuanmou Formation1
- Fossile Schildfröten aus China1
Each of the 19 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 Axis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- L. Shyamal
- Licence
- CC BY 2.5
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.
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 itCervini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1825