Lynx canadensis
The Canada lynx or Canadian lynx is one of the four living species in the genus Lynx. It is a medium-sized wild cat characterized by long, dense fur, triangular ears with black tufts at the tips, and broad, snowshoe-like paws. Its hindlimbs are longer than the forelimbs, so its back slopes downward to the front. The Canada lynx stands 48–56 cm (19–22 in) tall at the shoulder and weighs between 5 and 17 kg. It is a good swimmer and an agile climber.

Uncredited · 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
- Canadian lynxPBDB
- Sits inside
- LynxPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Lynx
- Life habit
- scansorialPBDB, for Felidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 198 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 210 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.
6 occurrences of Lynx canadensis 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
6 occurrences- Pleistocene83%
- Holocene17%
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
1 formation
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The named rock units Lynx canadensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Lynx canadensis and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Lynx canadensis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
102 taxa- Equus4 sites
- Erethizon dorsatum4 sites
- Mammuthus columbi4 sites
- Taxidea taxus4 sites
- Antilocapra americana3 sites
- Bison latifrons3 sites
- Camelops hesternus3 sites
- Cervus canadensis3 sites
- Ondatra zibethicus3 sites
- Paramylodon harlani3 sites
- Procyon lotor3 sites
- Puma concolor3 sites
- Vulpes vulpes3 sites
- Aenocyon dirus2 sites
- Camelops2 sites
- Canis latrans2 sites
- Canis lupus2 sites
- Castor canadensis2 sites
- Cynomys niobrarius2 sites
- Equus conversidens2 sites
- Hemiauchenia2 sites
- Lepus townsendii2 sites
- Lontra canadensis2 sites
- Neogale vison2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Lynx canadensis, 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
6 references- The American Falls local fauna: Late Pleistocene (Sangamonian) vertebrates from southeastern Idaho1
- Faunal correlation of Pleistocene deposits in Western Canada1
- Late Pleistocene vertebrates of the Silver Creek local fauna from north Central Utah1
- Cervids from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Central Washington1
- Roebuck Prehistoric Village Site, Grenville County, Ontario1
- List of the Pleistocene fauna from Hay Springs, Nebraska1
Each of the 6 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 content2
Picture of Lynx canadensis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- nobody named on the record
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- 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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Canada lynx”
- 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 itLynx through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Kerr 1792)