Conepatus leuconotus
The American hog-nosed skunk is a species of hog-nosed skunk from Central and North America, and is one of the largest skunks in the world, growing to lengths of up to 2.7 feet (82 cm). Recent work has concluded the western hog-nosed skunk is the same species, and Conepatus leuconotus is the correct name of the merged populations.

en:Louis Agassiz Fuertes . · Public Domain · 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
- eastern hog-nosed skunkPBDB
- Sits inside
- ConepatusPBDB
- Diet
- carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Carnivora
- Life habit
- scansorialPBDB, for Conepatus
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 81 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 210 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 1.4 Mya to 11.7 ka.
7 occurrences of Conepatus leuconotus 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
7 occurrences- Pleistocene100%
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.
Conepatus leuconotus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Conepatus leuconotus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
285 taxa- Odocoileus virginianus6 sites
- Dasypus bellus5 sites
- Equus5 sites
- Lynx rufus5 sites
- Tremarctos floridanus5 sites
- Mephitis mephitis4 sites
- Panthera onca4 sites
- Scalopus aquaticus4 sites
- Spilogale putorius4 sites
- Sylvilagus floridanus4 sites
- Tapirus (Helicotapirus) veroensis4 sites
- Anolis carolinensis3 sites
- Blarina carolinensis3 sites
- Cryptotis parva3 sites
- Diadophis punctatus3 sites
- Geomys pinetis3 sites
- Gopherus polyphemus3 sites
- Heterodon platyrhinos3 sites
- Hyla3 sites
- Meleagris gallopavo3 sites
- Neofiber alleni3 sites
- Neotoma floridana3 sites
- Ophisaurus ventralis3 sites
- Oryzomys palustris3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Conepatus leuconotus, 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
5 references- Historical Biogeography of Florida Pleistocene Mammals2
- Chronology of Florida Pleistocene mammals2
- Pleistocene mammals from Ladds, Bartow County, Georgia1
- Small Carnivores From San Josecito Cave (Pleistocene), Nuevo León, México1
- The fauna of Burnet Cave, Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico1
Each of the 7 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content2
Picture of Conepatus leuconotus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- en:Louis Agassiz Fuertes .
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Credit
- Biodiversity
- 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 itConepatus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Lichtenstein 1832)