Metamynodon

Metamynodon is an extinct genus of amynodont that lived in North America from the Middle Eocene to the Middle Oligocene. Metamynodon was a large, robust, and semiaquatic animal that displayed a suite of adaptations towards an amphibious lifestyle. Many of these features showcase convergent evolution with the modern hippopotamus, though Metamynodon is most closely related to rhinoceroses.

Metamynodon

Osborn. · Public Domain · 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
MetamynodontiniPBDB
Diet
browserPBDB
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 5.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 39.7 Mya to 33.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 31.8 Mya.

Eocene — about 17 of 23 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 6 of 23 occurrencesOligocene49–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 2 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 2 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–33 Mya — about 2 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 2 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39.7 Mya33.9 Mya48.6 Mya31.3 Mya

23 occurrences of Metamynodon 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

23 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

10 formations

Pondaung — 21.75°N, 94.70°EPondaung — 21.62°N, 94.85°EPondaung — 21.67°N, 94.83°EPondaung — 21.95°N, 94.53°EBrule — 46.90°N, 102.80°WBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 43.85°N, 102.50°WColmena Tuff — 29.90°N, 104.20°WDevil's Graveyard — 29.20°N, 103.20°WDevil's Graveyard — 29.90°N, 104.20°WByram — 32.30°N, 90.60°WByram — 32.40°N, 90.60°WChambers Tuff — 29.90°N, 104.20°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WChadron — 43.30°N, 102.50°WCaijiachong — 25.39°N, 103.95°ELumeiyi — 24.76°N, 103.33°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Metamynodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Metamynodon and its relatives

Eocene

Where Metamynodon and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

142 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Metamynodon, 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

17 references

Each of the 23 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. 5 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 Metamynodon

Credit
Osborn.
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
hippohipo
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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

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 itMetamynodontini through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Scott and Osborn 1887