Canis mosbachensis

Canis mosbachensis is an extinct wolf that inhabited Europe from the late Early Pleistocene to the Middle Pleistocene, around 1.4 million to 400,000 years ago. Canis mosbachensis is widely considered to have descended from the earlier Canis etruscus, and to be the ancestor of the living grey wolf with some considering it as a subspecies of the wolf as Canis lupus mosbachensis. The morphological distinction between C. mosbachensis and C. lupus has historically been vague, and attribution of fossils to C. mosbachensis or to C. lupus around the transition time between the two species is ambiguous.

Canis mosbachensis

Thilo Parg · 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
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 1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.55 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 1 of 23 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 22 of 23 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 23 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.5–3.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.4–3.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.2–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.0–2.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.8–2.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.6–1.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.5–1.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.4–1.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.2–1.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.1–945 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence945 ka–810 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence810 ka–675 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences675 ka–540 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences540 ka–405 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences405 ka–270 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences270 ka–135 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences135 ka–0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.8 Mya774 ka4.05 Mya0 Mya

23 occurrences of Canis mosbachensis on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

23 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.

Canis mosbachensis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Canis mosbachensis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

305 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 23 sites for Canis mosbachensis, 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

15 references

Each of the 23 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. 3 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 content2

Picture of Canis mosbachensis

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

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Canis mosbachensis · NHMUK:PAL:PV M 17934a

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itCanis through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Soergel 1925