Conepatus

The hog-nosed skunks belong to the genus Conepatus and are members of the family Mephitidae (skunks). They are native to the Americas. They have white backs and tails and black underparts.

Conepatus

Inao Vásquez payayita Louis Agassiz Fuertes Washington L. S. Vieira · 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
Also called
hog-nosed skunkPBDB
Sits inside
MephitidaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Carnivora
Life habit
scansorialPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 4.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 4.7 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 9.4 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 3 of 29 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 29 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 21 of 29 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 5 of 29 occurrences9.6–9.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.2–8.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.9–8.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.6–8.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.3–7.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.9–7.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.6–7.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.9–6.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.6–6.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.3–5.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.9–5.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.6–5.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.3–5.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.0–4.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.3–2.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.6–1.3 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.3–990 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence990 ka–660 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences660 ka–330 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences330 ka–0 Mya — about 21 occurrences4.7 Mya11.7 ka9.9 Mya0 Mya

29 occurrences of Conepatus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

29 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

2 formations

Tarija — 21.53°S, 64.73°WTarija — 21.50°S, 64.75°WMiramar — 38.17°S, 57.65°W

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The named rock units Conepatus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 26 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Conepatus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Conepatus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

525 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 25 sites for Conepatus, 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

18 references

Each of the 29 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. 6 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 Conepatus

Credit
Inao Vásquez payayita Louis Agassiz Fuertes Washington L. S. Vieira
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itMephitidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1837