Merycopotamus

Merycopotamus is an extinct genus of Asian anthracothere that appeared during the Middle Miocene, and died out in the Late Pliocene. At the height of the genus' influence, species ranged throughout South Asia and South East Asia. With the extinction of the last species, M. dissimilis, the lineage of anthracotheres came to an end. Merycopotamus was closely related to the anthracothere genus Libycosaurus, which, unlike the former, never left Africa. In fact, some African fossils originally placed in Merycopotamus, but are now referred to Libycosaurus.

Merycopotamus

Augustios Paleo · 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
BothriodontinaePBDB
Diet
browserPBDB, for Anthracotheriidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Anthracotheriidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At most 8.5 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 13.82 Mya and 5.333 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 8 of 8 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 8 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences10–9.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.9–9.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.6–9.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.9–8.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.6–8.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.3–8.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.0–7.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.7–7.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.4–7.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.7–6.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.4–6.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.1–5.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.8–5.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.5–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14.3 Mya4.8 Mya

8 occurrences of Merycopotamus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

8 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

3 formations

Dhok Pathan — 33.63°N, 72.52°EDhok Pathan — 33.19°N, 72.49°EBeglia — 34.00°N, 8.00°ENagri — 32.77°N, 72.50°E

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The named rock units Merycopotamus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Merycopotamus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Merycopotamus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

123 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Merycopotamus, 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

Each of the 8 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 content1

Picture of Merycopotamus

Credit
Augustios Paleo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itBothriodontinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Falconer and Cautley 1847