Merycoidodon

Merycoidodon is an extinct genus of herbivorous artiodactyl of the family Merycoidodontidae, more popularly known by the name Oreodon. It was endemic to North America during the Middle Eocene to Middle Miocene existing for approximately 30 million years.

Merycoidodon

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 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
MerycoidodontinaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Merycoidodontidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Merycoidodontidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

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 41.03 Mya to 18.5 Mya.

Eocene — about 35 of 186 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 150 of 186 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 1 of 186 occurrencesMiocene42–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 2 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 9 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 9 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 9 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 17 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 40 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 40 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 24 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 13 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 13 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 5 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33.9 Mya29.5 Mya41.5 Mya18 Mya

186 occurrences of Merycoidodon 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

186 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

12 formations

Brule — 42.90°N, 105.20°WBrule — 43.50°N, 101.90°WBrule — 43.90°N, 102.40°WBrule — 42.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 46.90°N, 102.80°WBrule — 43.20°N, 103.20°WBrule — 41.80°N, 103.80°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 43.00°N, 104.50°WBrule — 43.85°N, 102.50°WBrule — 43.71°N, 102.58°WBrule — 43.60°N, 102.45°WBrule — 41.70°N, 103.10°WBrule — 42.70°N, 102.50°WChadron — 43.60°N, 102.45°WChadron — 42.40°N, 103.80°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.10°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.40°WChadron — 42.90°N, 105.20°WChadron — 43.30°N, 102.50°WChadron — 42.00°N, 104.20°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWhite River — 40.80°N, 103.10°WRenova — 45.20°N, 112.00°WRenova — 46.00°N, 112.00°WCypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WCypress Hills — 49.80°N, 109.00°WCapote Mountain Tuff — 29.90°N, 104.20°WFlorissant — 38.93°N, 105.28°WPreitos — 29.80°N, 104.50°WSage Creek — 45.00°N, 112.80°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.63°WClimbing Arrow — 45.93°N, 111.62°WYolomécatl — 17.46°N, 97.58°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Merycoidodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 25 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Merycoidodon and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Merycoidodon and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

494 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 171 sites for Merycoidodon, 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

32 references

Each of the 186 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. 20 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 Merycoidodon

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itMerycoidodontinae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Leidy 1848