Pecora
Pecora is a clade of even-toed hoofed mammals (Artiodactyla) with ruminant digestion. Most Pecorans have cranial appendages projecting from their frontal bones; only two extant genera lack them, Hydropotes and Moschus. The name "Pecora" comes from Latin pecus, meaning "cattle". Most Pecorans have cranial appendages, but only some of these are true horns, and many scientists believe these appendages did not arise from a common ancestor, but evolved independently at least twice. Likewise, while Pecora as a group is supported by both molecular and morphological studies, morphological support for interrelationships between Pecora families is disputed.

Horcrux · 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
- RuminantiaPBDB
- Diet
- grazer, browserPBDB, for Artiodactyla
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Artiodactyla
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla
Time the record covers
At least 41 million years on record.
The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.
11,133 occurrences of Pecora on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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
11,133 occurrencesThese 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
486 formations
- Koobi Fora Formation · Omo Group744
- Nachukui Formation · Omo Group299
- Shungura Formation · Omo Group281
- Vogel River Series Formation196
- Olduvai Formation · Vogel River Series Group140
- Swartkrans Formation · Transvaal Group124
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The named rock units Pecora has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 462 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 5,997 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Pecora and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Pecora and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
1,543 taxa- Brontotheriidae44 sites
- Leptomeryx evansi42 sites
- Leptomeryx33 sites
- Equidae32 sites
- Leptomerycidae32 sites
- Hesperocyon gregarius31 sites
- Hesperocyon30 sites
- Palaeolagus haydeni29 sites
- Palaeolagus temnodon28 sites
- Paradjidaumo trilophus28 sites
- Hyracodon27 sites
- Herpetotherium fugax26 sites
- Ischyromys veterior25 sites
- Mesohippus bairdi25 sites
- Ischyromys24 sites
- Ischyromys typus24 sites
- Leptomeryx speciosus22 sites
- Megalagus turgidus22 sites
- Merycoidodon culbertsonii22 sites
- Poebrotherium22 sites
- Dinictis21 sites
- Eumys elegans21 sites
- Daphoenus20 sites
- Megalagus brachyodon20 sites
The Paleobiology Database records at least 1,150 sites for Pecora, and this reads 240 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
1,733 references- Family Bovidae568
- Synonymies and reidentifications of North American fossil mammals309
- Stratigraphy and Paleontology of pliocene and Pleistocene Localities West of Lake Turkana, Kenya255
- Laetoli: a Pliocene Site in Northern Tanzania196
- Catalogue of Tertiary Fossil Sites of the Land Mammals in the U.S.S.R.116
- Horned ruminants of North America108
- Paleoenvironmental and Cultural Implications of Late Holocene Archaeological Faunas from the Orange Free State and North Central Cape Province, South Africa105
- I giacimenti Quaternari di vertebrati fossili nell'Italia Nord-Orientale95
- Mittelpleistozane Saugetierfaunen aus Mitteleuropa - der Versuch einer biostratigraphischen Zuordnung86
- Family Giraffidae85
- Large mammal fossil occurrences and associated archaeological evidence in Pleistocene contexts of peninsular India and Sri Lanka83
- Lothagam: the dawn of humanity in eastern Africa83
Each of the 11,133 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. 1,721 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 Pecora
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Horcrux
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Pecora”
- 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 itRuminantia through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)