Procyon
Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals comprising three species commonly known as raccoons in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the common raccoon, is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are less well known. Genetic studies have shown that the closest relatives of raccoons are the ring-tailed cats and cacomistles of genus Bassariscus, from which they diverged about 10 million years ago.

Ttrimm · 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- Also called
- raccoonPBDB
- Sits inside
- ProcyoniniPBDB
- Diet
- omnivore, carnivorePBDB
- Life habit
- scansorialPBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 4.6 million years on record.
The record covers at least 4.7 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 9.4 Mya to 0 Mya.
116 occurrences of Procyon 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
116 occurrences- Miocene1%
- Pliocene7%
- Pleistocene75%
- Holocene16%
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
17 formations
- Tamiami Formation3
- Rexroad Formation3
- Bermont Formation2
- Mt. Eden Formation1
- Mehrten Formation1
- Ringold Formation1
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The named rock units Procyon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 94 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Procyon and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Procyon and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
1,500 taxa- Odocoileus virginianus58 sites
- Equus46 sites
- Castor canadensis32 sites
- Neotoma floridana29 sites
- Dasypus bellus28 sites
- Lynx rufus27 sites
- Scalopus aquaticus27 sites
- Sylvilagus26 sites
- Ursus americanus26 sites
- Erethizon dorsatum25 sites
- Ondatra zibethicus25 sites
- Aenocyon dirus24 sites
- Peromyscus24 sites
- Lontra canadensis23 sites
- Mammut americanum23 sites
- Mephitis mephitis23 sites
- Microtus pennsylvanicus23 sites
- Sylvilagus floridanus23 sites
- Marmota monax22 sites
- Tamias striatus22 sites
- Holmesina septentrionalis21 sites
- Odocoileus21 sites
- Paramylodon harlani21 sites
- Sciurus carolinensis21 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 108 sites for Procyon, 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
76 references- Quaternary vertebrate localities of Virginia and their avian and mammalian fauna9
- A late Pleistocene and early Holocene mammalian fauna from Little Beaver Cave, Central Ozarks, Missouri.7
- Three new procyonids (Mammalia, Carnivora) from the Blancan of Florida5
- Overview of the geology and vertebrate biochronology of the Leisey Shell Pit Local Fauna, Hillsborough County, Florida5
- Chronology of Florida Pleistocene mammals5
- Animal remains from Ohio rock shelters4
- Sabertooth cat, Smilodon floridanus (Leidy), and associated fauna from a Tennessee Cave (40 Dv 40), the First American Bank site3
- Cenozoic vertebrate biostratigraphy of South Carolina, U.S.A. and additions to the fauna2
- A new early Pleistocene tapir (Mammalia: Perissodactyla) from Florida, with a review of Blancan tapirs from around the state2
- Late Rancholabrean mammals from south- ernmost Florida, and the Neotropical influence in Florida Pleistocene faunas2
- Paleontology and historic field trip of the John Guilday Cave Preserve (Trout Rock)2
- Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) vertebrate faunas from coastal Georgia2
Each of the 116 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. 64 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 Procyon
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Ttrimm
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
Structured light scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Credit
- LACM Rancho La Brea
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Procyon lotor · LACM:rlb:P23 41919
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
- Commercial use
- the licence does not allow it
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 itProcyonini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Storr 1780