Ticholeptus

Ticholeptus is an extinct genus of oreodont endemic to North America during the Middle Miocene subepoch, existing for approximately 2.4 million years. Fossils have been uncovered throughout the United States from Florida to Oregon, as well as California, and numerous sites in Nebraska, Nevada, and Montana.

Ticholeptus

Daderot · Public Domain · 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
TicholeptinaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Merycoidodontidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Merycoidodontidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At most 18 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 23.1 Mya and 5.333 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Oligocene — about 0 of 53 occurrencesMiocene — about 53 of 53 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 53 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 4 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 4 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 5 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 6 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 6 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 6 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 6 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 6 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 4 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.8–9.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.2–8.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.6–8.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.0–7.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.3–6.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.7–6.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.1–5.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.5–4.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23.6 Mya4.8 Mya

53 occurrences of Ticholeptus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

53 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

19 formations

Olcott — 42.40°N, 103.80°WOlcott — 42.19°N, 103.73°WWood Mountain — 49.20°N, 106.20°WWood Mountain — 49.17°N, 105.99°WMascall — 44.70°N, 121.20°WMascall — 44.52°N, 119.67°WMascall — 44.50°N, 119.30°WMascall — 44.92°N, 120.18°WRunningwater — 42.80°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.20°N, 103.10°WValentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WButte Creek — 43.60°N, 117.50°WPawnee Creek — 40.80°N, 104.20°WTorreya — 30.50°N, 84.50°WFleming — 30.61°N, 95.13°WMadison Valley — 45.93°N, 111.29°WRenova — 45.20°N, 112.00°WRaine Ranch "equivalent" — 41.00°N, 115.50°WRailroad Canyon Beds — 45.00°N, 113.60°WVolcanic Sandstone — 43.60°N, 117.50°WSucker Creek — 43.60°N, 117.50°WVirgin Valley — 41.10°N, 117.80°WCaliente — 34.30°N, 119.00°WBarstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°WBranch Canyon — 34.90°N, 119.50°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ticholeptus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 17 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ticholeptus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Ticholeptus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

445 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 52 sites for Ticholeptus, 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

18 references

Each of the 53 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. 6 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 Ticholeptus

Credit
Daderot
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ticholeptus 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 itTicholeptinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1878