Pachyaena

Pachyaena was a paraphyletic or monophyletic genus of heavily built, relatively short-legged mesonychids. Mesonychids were part of the now extinct order of hoofed mammals known as Mesonychia, a group mammalian predators that evolved before modern ungulates or carnivorans. Despite this, mesonychians are found to have combined characteristics of both carnivorans and ungulates. The genus first appeared in East Asia during the Gashatan ALMA of the Late Paleocene. Pachyaena would disperse into North America via the Bering land bridge. From North America, it would disperse into Northwestern Europe via the North Atlantic land bridge. However, Pachyaena presence in Europe was notably short, lasting only 500,000 years. They would go extinct following a faunal turnover event and were later replaced by Hyaenodictis. North American Pachyaena, would go extinct around 52.8 Ma. The last population of Pachyaena persisted in the Lushi Formation, which dates to the Irdinmanhan faunal stage.

Pachyaena

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
MesonychidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Mesonychidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Mesonychidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 59.24 Mya to 48.07 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 61.66 Mya to 37.71 Mya.

Paleocene — about 5 of 75 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 70 of 75 occurrencesEocene62–61 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences60–60 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 7 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 11 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 11 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 11 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 11 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 11 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 4 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences59.24 Mya48.07 Mya62.2 Mya37.2 Mya

75 occurrences of Pachyaena 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

75 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

Willwood — 44.00°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.76°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 44.56°N, 108.70°WWillwood — 44.57°N, 108.60°WWillwood — 44.55°N, 108.71°WWillwood — 44.53°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.63°N, 108.50°WWillwood — 44.59°N, 108.41°WWillwood — 44.52°N, 108.58°WWillwood — 44.66°N, 108.68°WWillwood — 44.42°N, 108.74°WWillwood — 44.39°N, 108.78°WWillwood — 44.60°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.33°N, 108.27°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 40.60°N, 108.10°WWasatch — 42.70°N, 110.10°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 110.70°WDeBeque — 39.70°N, 107.60°WNongshan — 25.08°N, 114.17°ENongshan — 25.37°N, 114.52°EVaugirard — 48.84°N, 2.30°EVaugirard — 48.81°N, 2.24°ESan Jose — 36.50°N, 107.00°WMargaret — 78.50°N, 82.00°WNomogen — 43.15°N, 111.58°ENaran Bulak — 43.47°N, 100.45°ELushi — 34.05°N, 111.03°EBlackheath Beds — 51.43°N, 0.15°EFort Union — 44.72°N, 108.38°W

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The named rock units Pachyaena has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Pachyaena and its relatives

Eocene

Where Pachyaena and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

529 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 71 sites for Pachyaena, 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

23 references

Each of the 75 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. 11 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 content3

Picture of Pachyaena

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Pachyaena gracilis · AMNH:FM:16154

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itMesonychidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1874