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Castoroides ✝

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Castoroides ohioensis

Marion County, Florida, USA

Castoroides ohioensis

Sheridan County, Nebraska, USA

Castoroides ohioensis

Marion County, Florida, USA

Castoroides ohioensis

Sheridan County, Nebraska, USA

Castoroides ohioensis

Marion County, Florida, USA

Castoroides ohioensis

Sheridan County, Nebraska, USA

Description

Castoroides, or giant beaver, is an extinct genus of enormous beavers that lived in North America during the Pleistocene. C. leiseyorum and its northern sister species C. ohioensis, were the largest beavers to ever exist.

From Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castoroides, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

Source Data

Source	ID	Link
Global Biodiversity Information Facility ID (GBIF)	4574461	https://www.gbif.org/species/4574461
PaleoBioDB ID (PBDB)	41540	https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=41540

Rank

genus

Taxonomy (GBIF,PBDB)

Life : Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Rodentia : Castoridae : Castoroides

Taxonomic Status (GBIF)

accepted

Classification
(PBDB,GBIF)

Rank	Name	Author
-	Eukaryota
-	Opisthokonta	Cavalier-Smith 1987
kingdom	Animalia
-	Triploblastica	Lankester 1877
-	Nephrozoa	Jondelius et al. 2002
-	Deuterostomia	Grobben 1908
phylum	Chordata	Haeckel 1847
subphylum	Vertebrata	Lamarck 1801
superclass	Gnathostomata	Gegenbauer 1874
-	Osteichthyes
-	Sarcopterygii	Romer 1955
subclass	Dipnotetrapodomorpha
subclass	Tetrapodomorpha
-	Tetrapoda
-	Reptiliomorpha	Säve-Söderbergh 1934
-	Anthracosauria	Säve-Söderbergh 1934
-	Batrachosauria
-	Cotylosauria
-	Amniota	Haeckel 1866
-	Synapsida	Osborn 1903
-	Therapsida
infraorder	Cynodontia
-	Epicynodontia	Hopson and Kitching 2001
infraorder	Eucynodontia	Kemp 1982
-	Probainognathia	Hopson 1990
-	Mammaliamorpha	Rowe 1988
-	Mammaliaformes	Rowe 1988
class	Mammalia	Linnaeus 1758
subclass	Tribosphenida
infraclass	Eutheria
-	Placentalia	Owen 1837
-	Euarchontoglires	Murphy et al. 2001
-	Glires
order	Rodentia
superfamily	Castoroidea	Gray 1821
family	Castoridae	Gray 1821
subfamily	Castoroidinae	Allen 1877
tribe	Castoroidini	Allen 1877
genus	Castoroides	Foster 1838

Common Name

giant beaver

Scientific Name

Castoroides Foster, 1838

Name Published In

Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Ohio, 2

Opinions (PBDB)

Name	Rank	Opinion	Evidence	Author
Castoroides	genus	belongs to Castoridae	stated without evidence	Foster, 1838
Castoroides	genus	belongs to Rodentia	stated without evidence	Leidy, 1860
Castoroides	genus	belongs to Castoroididae	stated without evidence	Hay, 1902
Castoroides	genus	belongs to Castoridae	stated without evidence	Wilson, 1967
Castoroides	genus	belongs to Castoridae	implied	McKenna and Bell, 1997
Castoroides	genus	belongs to Castoroidinae	stated with evidence	Rybczynski, 2007
Castoroides	genus	belongs to Castoroidini	stated with evidence	Korth, 2008
Castoroides	genus	belongs to Castoridae	stated without evidence	Eshelman et al., 2018

Status (PBDB)

extinct

Taxon Size (PBDB)

First Recorded Appearance

2.59 - 0.30 Ma
Pleistocene

Last Recorded Appearance

0.13 - 0.01 Ma
Pleistocene

Environment

terrestrial (based on Eutheria)

Motility

actively mobile (based on Osteichthyes)

Diet

browser (based on Castoridae)

Taphonomy

phosphatic (based on Vertebrata)

Primary Reference (PBDB)

J. Alroy. 2002. Synonymies and reidentifications of North American fossil mammals.

Common Name(s)

Giant Beaver

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castoroides

Fossil Distribution

Subtaxa

Name	Status	Common Name(s)	Fossil Occurrences	Oldest	Youngest
Castoroides dilophidus species	accepted (GBIF)	No associated record in PBDB
Castoroides kansasensis species	accepted (GBIF)	No associated record in PBDB
Castoroides leiseyorum ✝ species	doubtful (GBIF) listed (PBDB)		3	2.59 Ma Pleistocene	1.80 Ma Pleistocene
Castoroides ohioensis ✝ species	accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB)		40	2.59 Ma Pleistocene	0.13 Ma Pleistocene

Synonymy List

Year	Name and Author
1838	Castoroides Foster
1860	Castoroides Leidy p. 114
1902	Castoroides Hay p. 733
1967	Castoroides Wilson p. 208
1980	Castoroides Kurten and Anderson p. 236
1997	Castoroides McKenna and Bell
2007	Castoroides Rybczynski p. 7
2008	Castoroides Korth p. 169
2018	Castoroides Eshelman et al. p. 6
2019	Castoroides Albright et al. p. 157

References

Alroy J. (2002) Synonymies and reidentifications of North American fossil mammals

Leidy J. Description of Vertebrate Fossils, Post-Pleiocene Fossils of South-Carolina, 99-122

Hay O. P. (1902) , Bibliography and Catalogue of the Fossil Vertebrata of North America. Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey 179, 1-868

Wilson R. L. (1967) The Pleistocene vertebrates of Michigan, Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters 52, 197-234

Kurten B., Anderson E. (1980) , Pleistocene mammals of North America, 1-442

McKenna M. C., Bell S. K. (1997) , Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level, 1-640

Rybczynski N. (2007) Castorid phylogenetics: implications for the evolution of swimming and tree-exploitation in beavers, Journal of Mammalian Evolution 14 1, 1-35

Korth W. W. (2008) Cranial morphology, systematics and succession of beavers from the middle Miocene Valentine Formation of Nebraska, USA, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 53 2, 169-182

Eshelman R. E., Lowery D., et al (2018) Late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) Mammalian Assemblage from Paw Paw Cove, Tilghman Island, Maryland, Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 102, 1-15

Albright L. B., Sanders A. E., et al (2019) Cenozoic vertebrate biostratigraphy of South Carolina, U.S.A. and additions to the fauna, Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History 57 2, 77-236

Nomenclator Zoologicus. A list of the names of genera and subgenera in zoology from the tenth edition of Linnaeus, 1758 to the end of 2004. Digitised by uBio from vols. 1-9 of Neave (ed.), 1939-1996 plus supplementary digital-only volume. http://ubio.org/NomenclatorZoologicus (as at 2006). - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera

SN2000/McKenna & Bell, 1997 - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera

SN2000: Brands, S. J. (compiler) 1989-2005. Systema Naturae 2000. Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2006 version). Available online at http://sn2000.taxonomy.nl/. - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera

as per family - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera

Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Ohio, 2 - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera

Data courtesy of: PBDB: The Paleobiology Database, Creative Commons CC-BY licenced. , GBIF: the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, various licences, iDigBio, various licences, and EOL: The Encyclopedia of Life (Open Data Public Domain). Because fossils are made of minerals too!

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