Enhydrocyon

Enhydrocyon is an extinct genus of bone crushing canid which inhabited North America during the Oligocene and Early Miocene, 30.8—20.4 Ma, existing for approximately 11 million years.

Enhydrocyon

William Driller Matthew (1871-1930) · 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
Sits inside
HesperocyoninaePBDB
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 6.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 29.5 Mya to 23.1 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 31.8 Mya to 18.5 Mya.

Oligocene — about 19 of 30 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 11 of 30 occurrencesMiocene32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–25 Mya — about 1 occurrence25–25 Mya — about 1 occurrence25–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 2 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence23–22 Mya — about 1 occurrence22–22 Mya — about 1 occurrence22–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence29.5 Mya23.1 Mya32.3 Mya18 Mya

30 occurrences of Enhydrocyon on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

30 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

6 formations

John Day — 44.60°N, 119.62°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.65°WHarrison — 43.30°N, 102.50°WHarrison — 42.40°N, 103.80°WHarrison — 43.00°N, 104.50°WMonroe Creek — 43.30°N, 102.50°WSharps — 43.30°N, 102.50°WGering — 43.00°N, 104.50°WTurtle Butte — 43.07°N, 99.83°W

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The named rock units Enhydrocyon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Enhydrocyon and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Enhydrocyon and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

237 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Enhydrocyon, 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

9 references

Each of the 30 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 Enhydrocyon

Credit
William Driller Matthew (1871-1930)
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Enhydrocyon 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 itHesperocyoninae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1879