Canis lepophagus

Canis lepophagus is an extinct species of canid which was endemic to much of North America during the Early Pliocene. It is notable because its lineage is proposed to have led to both wolves and coyotes.

Canis lepophagus

Kari A. Prassack & Laura C. Walkup · 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
CanisPBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Canidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Canidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 2.1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 4.7 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 9.4 Mya to 14 ka.

Miocene — about 1 of 38 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 22 of 38 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 15 of 38 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 38 occurrences9.6–9.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.2–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–8.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.3–7.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.9–7.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.6–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.6–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–5.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.0–4.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences4.6–4.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.3–4.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.6–3.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.3–3.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.3–2.0 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.6–1.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.3–990 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences990 ka–660 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences660 ka–330 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences330 ka–0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7 Mya2.58 Mya9.9 Mya0 Mya

38 occurrences of Canis lepophagus on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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

38 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

10 formations

Glenns Ferry — 42.80°N, 114.90°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WBallard — 37.20°N, 100.30°WPanaca — 37.80°N, 114.30°WCamp Rice — 32.00°N, 106.70°WBlanco — 33.70°N, 101.10°WLove — 31.50°N, 105.20°WRingold — 47.00°N, 118.50°WLong Pine — 42.38°N, 98.23°WWaccamaw — 33.00°N, 80.18°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Canis lepophagus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Canis lepophagus and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Canis lepophagus and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

348 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 38 sites for Canis lepophagus, 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

17 references

Each of the 38 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. 5 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 Canis lepophagus

Credit
Kari A. Prassack & Laura C. Walkup
Licence
CC BY 4.0
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 itCanis through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Johnston 1938