Loxolophus
Loxolophus is a genus of large arctocyonid from the early Palaeocene of North America. Two species are currently recognised: the type species, Loxolophus hyattianus, and L. priscus.

via iDigBio · via iDigBio. 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
- ArctocyonidaePBDB
- Diet
- omnivorePBDB, for Arctocyonidae
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Arctocyonidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At most 5.1 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 66 Mya and 60.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
45 occurrences of Loxolophus on record, most of them in the Paleocene. 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
45 occurrences- Paleocene100%
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
7 formations
- Nacimiento Formation13
- North Horn Formation9
- Ferris Formation9
- Denver Formation6
- Fort Union Formation3
- Ravenscrag Formation2
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The named rock units Loxolophus 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.
Loxolophus and its relatives
PaleoceneWhere Loxolophus and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.
Found in the same rock
237 taxa- Periptychus coarctatus15 sites
- Mithrandir gillianus11 sites
- Crocodylia9 sites
- Ectoconus ditrigonus8 sites
- Allognathosuchus7 sites
- Compsemys victa7 sites
- Lepisosteus7 sites
- Anisonchus athelas5 sites
- Onychodectes tisonensis5 sites
- Oxyacodon apiculatus5 sites
- Trionychidae5 sites
- Anisonchus oligistus4 sites
- Choeroclaenus turgidunculus4 sites
- Conacodon kohlbergeri4 sites
- Ectoconus symbolus4 sites
- Haploconus entoconus4 sites
- Hoplochelys4 sites
- Oxyacodon agapetillus4 sites
- Oxyacodon priscilla4 sites
- Oxyclaenus cuspidatus4 sites
- Oxyclaenus simplex4 sites
- Parectypodus4 sites
- Puercolestes simpsoni4 sites
- Taeniolabis taoensis4 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 32 sites for Loxolophus, 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
16 references- A new important record of earliest Cenozoic mammalian history: geologic setting, Multituberculata, and Peradectia9
- Paleocene (Puercan-Torrejonian) mammalian faunas of the North Horn Formation, central Utah6
- Exceptional continental record of biotic recovery after the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction4
- The beginning of the age of mammals in the San Juan Basin, New Mexico; biostratigraphy and evolution of Paleocene mammals of the Nacimiento Formation4
- Paleocene vertebrate paleontology of the San Juan Basin, New Mexico3
- Early Paleocene vertebrates, stratigraphy and biostratigraphy, West Fork of Gallegos Canyon, San Juan Basin, New Mexico3
- Early Paleocene vertebrates of the Denver Basin, Colorado3
- Synonymies and reidentifications of North American fossil mammals2
- Mammals and mollusks across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary from Makoshika State Park and vicinity (Williston Basin), Montana2
- The succession of Paleocene mammals in western Canada2
- The mammalian faunas of the Paleocene of central Utah, with notes on the geology2
- A new important record of earliest Cenozoic mammalian history1
Each of the 45 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. 4 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 content1

Picture of Loxolophus
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
No 3D scan of Loxolophus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Loxolophus”
- 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 itArctocyonidae through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1885