Hoplophoneus

Hoplophoneus is an extinct genus of saber-toothed carnivoran belonging to the family Nimravidae, sometimes known as false saber-toothed cats. The titular member of the subfamily Hoplophoninae, it is closely related to nimravids such as Eusmilus and Nanosmilus. Hoplophoneus lived in North America and Asia during the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene epochs from 35.7 to 30.5 mya, existing for approximately 5.2 million years. Including supplementary materials The genus currently consists of three named species: H. oharri, H. occidentalis, and H. primaveus.

Hoplophoneus

Rama · CC BY-SA 2.0 fr · 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
HoplophoneiniPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Nimravidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 4.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 29.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 37.71 Mya to 18.5 Mya.

Eocene — about 13 of 49 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 35 of 49 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 1 of 49 occurrencesMiocene38–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 3 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 5 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 6 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 6 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 4 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–26 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences33.9 Mya29.5 Mya38.2 Mya18 Mya

49 occurrences of Hoplophoneus 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

49 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

9 formations

Brule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 43.90°N, 102.40°WBrule — 42.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.00°N, 104.23°WBrule — 42.83°N, 104.25°WBrule — 43.85°N, 102.50°WBrule — 43.57°N, 100.75°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.40°WChadron — 43.60°N, 102.45°WChadron — 43.30°N, 102.50°WChadron — 43.65°N, 102.82°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.60°N, 119.62°WSharps — 43.30°N, 102.50°WSharps — 43.50°N, 101.90°WCypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WSespe — 34.25°N, 118.96°WKrabi Basin B2 — 7.97°N, 99.06°EQuercy Phosphorites — 44.27°N, 1.63°E

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The named rock units Hoplophoneus 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.

Hoplophoneus and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Hoplophoneus and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

395 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 45 sites for Hoplophoneus, 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

23 references

Each of the 49 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. 11 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 content4

Picture of Hoplophoneus

Credit
Rama
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0 fr
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D scan

Licence
CC0 — this site’s default, not the record’s
Commercial use
the licence allows it
Specimen
Hoplophoneus primaevus latidens Thorpe

Photogrammetry

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Hoplophoneus oharrai · UCM:Paleontology:UCM:FossilVert:19163

3D model

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

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 itHoplophoneini through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1874