Platygonus

Platygonus is an extinct genus of herbivorous peccaries of the family Tayassuidae, endemic to North and South America from the Miocene through Pleistocene epochs, existing for about 10.289 million years. P. compressus stood 2.5 feet tall.

Platygonus

David Starner · CC BY 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
PlatygoniniPBDB
Diet
browser, grazerPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Tayassuidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 214 occurrencesMiocene — about 14 of 214 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 59 of 214 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 140 of 214 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 16 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 24 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 24 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 28 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 32 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 74 occurrences15.98 Mya11.7 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

214 occurrences of Platygonus 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

214 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

42 formations

Blanco — 33.81°N, 101.21°WBlanco — 33.70°N, 101.10°WBlanco — 33.77°N, 101.28°WPalm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSt. David — 32.00°N, 110.20°WSt. David — 31.97°N, 110.30°WChapadmalal — 38.00°S, 58.00°WChapadmalal — 38.12°S, 57.70°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WLove — 31.50°N, 105.20°WGila Conglomerate — 32.84°N, 110.00°WGila Conglomerate — 32.70°N, 109.10°WGila Conglomerate — 32.70°N, 109.00°WTamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WTamiami — 27.30°N, 80.80°WTamiami — 26.50°N, 81.80°WRancho Viejo Beds — 21.20°N, 100.70°WRancho Viejo Beds — 21.03°N, 100.75°WRattlesnake — 44.50°N, 119.30°WCrooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WRingold — 47.00°N, 118.50°WRingold — 46.30°N, 119.10°WKingsdown — 37.04°N, 100.48°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WTurlock Lake — 37.06°N, 120.20°WGlenns Ferry — 42.80°N, 114.90°WMcKay — 45.50°N, 118.80°WSan Joaquin — 35.90°N, 120.00°WSan Diego — 32.90°N, 117.10°WBallard — 37.20°N, 100.30°WPanaca — 37.80°N, 114.30°WCamp Rice — 32.00°N, 106.70°WSappa — 41.20°N, 96.60°W"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WTacubaya — 21.80°N, 102.30°W

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The named rock units Platygonus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 133 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Platygonus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Platygonus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,667 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 192 sites for Platygonus, 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

129 references

Each of the 214 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. 117 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 Platygonus

Credit
David Starner
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Platygonus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itPlatygonini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Leconte 1848