Borophagus hilli
Borophagus hilli is an extinct species of the genus Borophagus of the subfamily Borophaginae, a group of canids endemic to North America from the Late Miocene until the Early Pleistocene.

Geekgecko · CC BY 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
- BorophagusPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Borophagus
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Canidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At most 8 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 9.4 Mya and 1.4 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
17 occurrences of Borophagus hilli 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
17 occurrences- Miocene50%
- Pliocene35%
- Pleistocene15%
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
6 formations
- Peace River Formation · Hawthorn Group4
- Glenns Ferry Formation1
- Rexroad Formation1
- Palomas Formation1
- Ringold Formation1
- Cuscatlán Formation1
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The named rock units Borophagus hilli has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Borophagus hilli and its relatives
MioceneWhere Borophagus hilli and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
147 taxa- Hemiauchenia5 sites
- Cormohipparion emsliei4 sites
- Dinohippus mexicanus4 sites
- Hexameryx simpsoni4 sites
- Plesippus simplicidens4 sites
- Tapirus polkensis4 sites
- Astrohippus stockii3 sites
- Eucyon davisi3 sites
- Neohipparion eurystyle3 sites
- Ontocetus emmonsi3 sites
- Phocidae3 sites
- Testudines3 sites
- Borophagus pugnator2 sites
- Caretta2 sites
- Enhydritherium terraenovae2 sites
- Epicyon haydeni2 sites
- Eretmochelys2 sites
- Floridameryx floridanus2 sites
- Goniodelphis hudsoni2 sites
- Hesperotestudo2 sites
- Hexobelomeryx2 sites
- Hypolagus ringoldensis2 sites
- Machairodontinae2 sites
- Megalonyx2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Borophagus hilli, 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- Phylogenetic systematics of the Borophaginae (Carnivora: Canidae)12
- Cenozoic vertebrate biostratigraphy of South Carolina, U.S.A. and additions to the fauna1
- A new genus and species of heron (Aves: Ardeidae) from the late Miocene of Florida1
- A Blancan (Pliocene) short-faced bear from El Salvador and its implications for Tremarctines in South America1
- Synonymies and reidentifications of North American fossil mammals1
- A contribution to the Saw Rock Canyon Local Fauna of Kansas1
Each of the 17 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 Borophagus hilli
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Geekgecko
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Borophagus hilli 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 itBorophagus through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Johnston 1939)