Neochoerus
Neochoerus is an extinct genus of rodent closely related to the living capybara. Fossil remains of Neochoerus have been found through North America and South America in Boyacá, Colombia.

Skye McDavid · 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
- HydrochoerinaePBDB
- Diet
- herbivorePBDB, for Caviidae
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Caviidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 1.6 million years on record.
The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 0 Mya.
69 occurrences of Neochoerus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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
69 occurrences- Pliocene5%
- Pleistocene94%
- Holoceneunder 1%
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
16 formations
- Wando Formation6
- Waccamaw Formation3
- Rancho Viejo Beds Formation2
- Sopas Formation2
- Ten Mile Hills Beds Formation2
- St. David Formation1
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The named rock units Neochoerus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 43 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Neochoerus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Neochoerus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
1,012 taxa- Equus22 sites
- Odocoileus virginianus17 sites
- Holmesina septentrionalis14 sites
- Mammuthus columbi14 sites
- Panthera onca14 sites
- Tapirus14 sites
- Aenocyon dirus12 sites
- Procyon lotor12 sites
- Dasypus bellus11 sites
- Mammut americanum11 sites
- Odocoileus10 sites
- Tapirus (Helicotapirus) veroensis10 sites
- Lynx rufus9 sites
- Palaeolama mirifica9 sites
- Paramylodon harlani9 sites
- Podilymbus podiceps9 sites
- Smilodon populator9 sites
- Alligator mississippiensis8 sites
- Bison8 sites
- Eremotherium laurillardi8 sites
- Glyptotherium8 sites
- Hemiauchenia macrocephala8 sites
- Sylvilagus8 sites
- Tremarctos floridanus8 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 60 sites for Neochoerus, 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
48 references- Additions to the Pleistocene Mammal Faunas of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia11
- Synonymies and reidentifications of North American fossil mammals4
- New fossil remains of Quaternary capybaras (Rodentia: Caviomorpha: Caviidae) from the intertropical region of Brazil: morphology and taxonomy3
- Small mammals (Insectivora, Lagomorpha, and Rodentia) from the early Pleistocene (early Irvingtonian) Leisey Shell Pit Local Fauna, Hillsborough County, Florida3
- Cenozoic vertebrate biostratigraphy of South Carolina, U.S.A. and additions to the fauna2
- Diversity and preservation of Pleistocene tetrapods from caves of southwestern Bahia, Brazil2
- Guatemala's Late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) fauna: Revision and interpretation2
- A systematic reassessment and paleogeographic review of fossil Xenarthra from Peru2
- Late Cenozoic mammal bio-chronostratigraphy in southwestern Buenos Aires Province, Argentina1
- Geochronology of Hemphillian-Blancan aged strata, Guanajuato, Mexico, and implications for the timing of the Great American Biotic Interchange1
- Los Mamíferos fósiles del Pleistoceno de la Cueva del Zumbador (Fa. 116), Estado Falcón, Venezuela1
- Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) vertebrate faunas from coastal Georgia1
Each of the 69 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. 36 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 Neochoerus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Skye McDavid
- 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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Neochoerus”
- 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 itHydrochoerinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hay 1926