Trigonias
Trigonias is an extinct genus of rhinocerotid from the late Eocene (Chadronian) some 35 million years ago of North America.

James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · 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
- RhinocerotidaePBDB
- Diet
- browserPBDB, for Rhinocerotidae
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Rhinocerotidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 3.1 million years on record.
The record covers at least 37 Mya to 33.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 27.3 Mya.
31 occurrences of Trigonias on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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
31 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
6 formations
- Chadron Formation17
- White River Formation6
- Renova Formation3
- Pruett Formation1
- Cypress Hills Formation1
- Yolomécatl Formation1
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The named rock units Trigonias has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Trigonias and its relatives
EoceneWhere Trigonias and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.
Found in the same rock
338 taxa- Brontotheriidae16 sites
- Hesperocyon gregarius11 sites
- Ischyromys veterior11 sites
- Megalagus brachyodon10 sites
- Palaeolagus temnodon10 sites
- <Novacek leptictid>9 sites
- Hyracodon priscidens9 sites
- Adjidaumo minimus7 sites
- Centetodon chadronensis7 sites
- Douglassciurus jeffersoni7 sites
- Ankylodon6 sites
- Brachyrhynchocyon dodgei6 sites
- Equidae6 sites
- Herpetotherium fugax6 sites
- Leptomeryx mammifer6 sites
- Leptomeryx speciosus6 sites
- Merycoidodon culbertsonii6 sites
- Poebrotherium6 sites
- Prosciurus vetustus6 sites
- Pseudoprotoceras longinaris6 sites
- Subhyracodon6 sites
- Trigenicus profectus6 sites
- Archaeotherium coarctatum5 sites
- Aulolithomys bounites5 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Trigonias, 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
16 references- New material for the study of evolution: a series of primitive rhinoceros skulls (Trigonias) from the Lower Oligocene of Colorado6
- The Evolution of North American Rhinoceroses4
- Mammalian Range Zones in the Chadronian White River Formation at Flagstaff Rim, Wyoming4
- Geology, paleoecology, and paleoclimatology of the Chadron Formation3
- Correlation of the early Oligocene (Chadronian) in northwestern Nebraska2
- Some early Tertiary rhinoceroses and hyracodonts2
- The first Late Eocene continental faunal assemblage from tropical North America1
- Synonymies and reidentifications of North American fossil mammals1
- Eocene-Oligocene faunas of the Cypress Hills Formation, Saskatchewan1
- Pearson and Hoganson, 19951
- Personal communication regarding Tertiary faunal lists, Jefferson County, Montana1
- Early Tertiary Vertebrate Faunas, Trans-Pecos Texas: Ceratomorpha less Amynodontidae1
Each of the 31 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. 4 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 Trigonias
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- James St. John
- Licence
- CC BY 2.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Trigonias was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Trigonias”
- 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 itRhinocerotidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lucas 1900