Tomarctus

Tomarctus is a genus of borophagine canid which inhabited most of North America during the late Early Miocene to the Early Barstovian age of the Middle Miocene.

Tomarctus

Bloopityboop · 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
AelurodontinaPBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Canidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Canidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 3.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 16.3 Mya to 12.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 18.5 Mya to 9.4 Mya.

Miocene — about 63 of 63 occurrencesMiocene19–18 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–16 Mya — about 4 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 5 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 5 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 5 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 5 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 5 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 5 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 5 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 5 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 5 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 5 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.9–9.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.6–9.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16.3 Mya12.5 Mya19 Mya8.9 Mya

63 occurrences of Tomarctus 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

63 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

13 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°WBarstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°WPawnee Creek — 40.80°N, 104.20°WFleming — 30.30°N, 95.70°WFleming — 30.61°N, 95.15°WMonarch Mill — 39.20°N, 117.90°WMonarch Mill — 39.39°N, 117.98°WCaliente — 35.10°N, 120.00°WCaliente — 34.30°N, 119.00°WTesuque — 35.50°N, 106.20°WHector — 34.80°N, 117.00°WCucaracha — 9.10°N, 79.70°WCucaracha — 9.05°N, 79.67°WSand Canyon — 42.80°N, 103.10°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WRosarito Beach — 32.12°N, 116.80°W

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The named rock units Tomarctus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Tomarctus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Tomarctus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

455 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 54 sites for Tomarctus, 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

15 references

Each of the 63 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. 3 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 Tomarctus

Credit
Bloopityboop
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Tomarctus rurestris · JODA:1336

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 itAelurodontina through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1873