Leptoreodon

Leptoreodon is an extinct genus of small Artiodactyla, of the family Protoceratidae, endemic to North America. It lived during the Late Eocene 40.4—37.2 Ma, existing for approximately 3 million years. Leptoreodon resembled deer, but were more closely related to camelids.

Leptoreodon

E Christopher Kirk Kathryn Beth Townsend Alan L Deino · CC BY 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
ProtoceratidaePBDB
Diet
browserPBDB, for Protoceratidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Protoceratidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At most 8.9 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 45.9 Mya and 37 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 75 of 75 occurrencesEocene46–46 Mya — about 2 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 4 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 4 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 4 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 4 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 4 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 4 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 4 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 4 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 4 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 4 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 4 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 4 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 4 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 4 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 4 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 4 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 4 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 4 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 2 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 1 occurrence39–39 Mya — about 1 occurrence39–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–37 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences46.4 Mya36.5 Mya

75 occurrences of Leptoreodon on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

75 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

13 formations

Sespe — 34.30°N, 119.00°WSespe — 33.83°N, 117.71°WFriars — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSantiago — 33.13°N, 117.29°WSantiago — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSantiago — 33.19°N, 117.32°WDevil's Graveyard — 29.20°N, 103.20°WDevil's Graveyard — 29.90°N, 104.20°WUinta — 40.07°N, 109.28°WUinta — 40.17°N, 109.93°WWagon Bed ("Tepee Trail") — 43.20°N, 107.10°WColmena Tuff — 29.90°N, 104.20°WLaredo — 27.53°N, 99.43°WCypress Hills — 50.20°N, 107.60°WDell Beds — 45.00°N, 112.80°WMission Valley — 32.90°N, 117.10°WStadium — 32.78°N, 117.15°WPomerado — 32.92°N, 117.07°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Leptoreodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Leptoreodon and its relatives

Eocene

Where Leptoreodon and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

458 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 65 sites for Leptoreodon, 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

22 references

Each of the 75 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. 10 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 Leptoreodon

Credit
E Christopher Kirk Kathryn Beth Townsend Alan L Deino
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Leptoreodon major · sdsnh:47878

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 itProtoceratidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wortman 1898