Borhyaenidae

Borhyaenidae is an extinct metatherian family of low-slung, heavily built predatory mammals in the order Sparassodonta. Borhyaenids are not true marsupials, but members of a sister taxon, Sparassodonta. Like most metatherians, borhyaenids and other sparassodonts are thought to have had a pouch to carry their offspring around. Borhyaenids had strong and powerful jaws, like those of the unrelated placentalians Hyaenodon and Andrewsarchus, for crushing bones. Borhyaenids grew up to an average of 5 to 6 feet long.

Borhyaenidae

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
BorhyaenoideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Sparassodonta
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Theria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sparassodonta

Time the record covers

At least 53 million years on record.

The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 5 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 104 occurrencesPaleocene — about 3 of 104 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 12 of 104 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 18 of 104 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 71 of 104 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 104 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences59–57 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 2 occurrences55–52 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 1 occurrence46–44 Mya — about 1 occurrence44–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–40 Mya — about 2 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences36–33 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 6 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 5 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 5 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 6 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 6 occurrences19–16 Mya — about 39 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 9 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 4 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 3 occurrences10–8.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.0–5.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.9–3.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences61.66 Mya8 Mya67 Mya4 Mya

104 occurrences of Borhyaenidae 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

104 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

22 formations

Santa Cruz — 51.20°S, 69.12°WSanta Cruz — 50.60°S, 69.08°WSanta Cruz — 50.00°S, 70.00°WSanta Cruz — 50.55°S, 69.22°WSanta Cruz — 51.57°S, 69.47°WSanta Cruz — 51.33°S, 69.02°WSanta Cruz — 50.05°S, 70.44°WSanta Cruz — 48.52°S, 69.72°WSanta Cruz — 51.05°S, 69.13°WSanta Cruz — 50.95°S, 69.20°WSanta Cruz — 50.05°S, 71.78°WSanta Cruz — 50.35°S, 68.95°WSanta Cruz — 50.35°S, 69.03°WSanta Cruz — 50.85°S, 69.13°WSanta Cruz — 51.35°S, 69.00°WSanta Cruz — 50.28°S, 70.28°WSanta Cruz — 50.16°S, 69.68°WSarmiento — 45.23°S, 67.49°WSarmiento — 44.67°S, 68.42°WSarmiento — 45.67°S, 68.67°WSarmiento — 46.68°S, 68.35°WSalla — 17.18°S, 67.63°WVillavieja — 3.17°N, 75.16°WVillavieja — 3.26°N, 75.20°WAbanico — 34.98°S, 70.43°WAbanico — 34.83°S, 70.50°WRío Frias — 44.58°S, 71.22°WLas Flores — 45.37°S, 67.74°WLas Flores — 45.40°S, 67.18°WCollón Cura — 40.39°S, 70.21°WNazareno — 21.67°S, 65.58°WArroyo Chasicó — 38.62°S, 62.98°WCerro Bandera — 38.88°S, 69.47°WItaboraí — 22.84°S, 42.88°WUrumaco — 11.18°N, 70.23°WCerro Azul — 36.25°S, 65.51°WPeñas Coloradas — 45.27°S, 67.00°WAndesitas Huancache — 42.78°S, 69.86°WPozo — 7.33°S, 74.95°WAgua de la Piedra — 36.55°S, 69.70°WDeseado — 47.90°S, 66.25°WGuabirotuba — 25.51°S, 49.34°WLa Victoria — 3.30°N, 75.15°WLas Chacras — 41.37°S, 69.65°W

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The named rock units Borhyaenidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Borhyaenidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Borhyaenidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

846 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 64 sites for Borhyaenidae, 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

46 references

Each of the 104 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. 34 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 Borhyaenidae

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
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 itBorhyaenoidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Savage 1951)