Borissiakia

Borissiakia is an extinct genus of chalicothere, a group of herbivorous, odd-toed ungulate (perissodactyl) mammals, that lived during the late Oligocene in Kazakhstan. They had claws that were likely used in a hook-like manner to pull down branches, suggesting they lived as bipedal browsers.

Borissiakia

MikSed · 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
SchizotheriinaePBDB
Diet
browserPBDB, for Chalicotherioidea
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Chalicotherioidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 7.1 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 23.04 Mya and 15.98 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Oligocene — about 0 of 1 occurrenceMiocene — about 1 of 1 occurrenceMiocene23–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23.5 Mya15.5 Mya

1 occurrence of Borissiakia 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

1 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

1 formation

Xianshuihe — 36.16°N, 103.59°E

Loading coastlines…

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

Borissiakia and its relatives

Miocene

Where Borissiakia and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

No other named taxon is catalogued from that site.

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Borissiakia, and this reads all of them.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Borissiakia

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

No 3D scan of Borissiakia 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 itSchizotheriinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Butler 1965