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Merycoides ✝

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Description

Merycoides is an extinct genus of oreodont of the subfamily Merycoidodontinae endemic to North America. It lived during the Oligocene to Late Miocene, 30.8—16.0 mya, existing for approximately 15 million years. Fossils have been uncovered throughout the western U.S. as well as Florida.

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

Source Data

Source	ID	Link
Global Biodiversity Information Facility ID (GBIF)	4835263	https://www.gbif.org/species/4835263
PaleoBioDB ID (PBDB)	42501	https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=42501

Rank

genus

Taxonomy (GBIF)

Life : Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Artiodactyla : Merycoidodontidae : Merycoides

Taxonomy (PBDB)

Life : Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Artiodactyla : Merycoidodontidae : Merycoides

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
order	Ungulata
order	Artiodactyla	Owen 1848
family	Merycoidodontidae	Cook 1912
subfamily	Eporeodontinae	Schultz and Falkenbach 1968
genus	Merycoides	Douglass 1907

Scientific Name

Merycoides Douglass, 1907

Name Published In

Ann. Carnegie Mus., 4 (2)

Opinions (PBDB)

Name	Rank	Opinion	Evidence	Author
Merycoides	genus	belongs to Merycoidodontidae	stated without evidence	Douglass, 1907
Merycoides	genus	subjective synonym of Mesoreodon	stated without evidence	Loomis, 1920
Merycoides	genus	belongs to Merycoidodontidae	stated without evidence	Loomis, 1924
Merycoides	genus	belongs to Promerycochoerinae	stated with evidence	Schultz and Falkenbach, 1949
Merycoides	genus	belongs to Merycoidodontidae	stated without evidence	Lander, 1998
Merycoides	genus	belongs to Eporeodontinae	stated with evidence	Stevens and Stevens, 2007

Status (PBDB)

extinct

Taxon Size (PBDB)

First Recorded Appearance

33.3 - 30.8 Ma
Oligocene

Last Recorded Appearance

20.4 - 16.0 Ma
Miocene

Environment

terrestrial (based on Artiodactyla)

Motility

actively mobile (based on Osteichthyes)

Diet

herbivore (based on Merycoidodontidae)

Taphonomy

phosphatic (based on Vertebrata)

Primary Reference (PBDB)

E. Douglass. 1907. Some new merycoidodonts. Annals of Carnegie Museum 4:99-109

Wikipedia

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

Fossil Distribution

Subtaxa

Name	Status	Fossil Occurrences	Oldest	Youngest
Merychyus pariogonus ✝ species	accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB)	2	33.3 Ma Oligocene	20.4 Ma Miocene
Merycoides cursor ✝ species	accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB)
Merycoides giganteus ✝ species	accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB)
Merycoides nebraskensis ✝ species	accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB)
Mesoreodon longiceps ✝ species	accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB)	12	24.8 Ma Oligocene	20.4 Ma Miocene

Synonymy List

Year	Name and Author
1907	Merycoides Douglass
1924	Merycoides Loomis
1937	Merycoides Thorpe p. 171
1949	Merycoides Schultz and Falkenbach p. 153 figs. 7, 21-24
1998	Merycoides Lander
2007	Merycoides Stevens and Stevens p. 160

References

Douglass E. (1907) Some new merycoidodonts, Annals of Carnegie Museum 4, 99-109

Loomis F. B. (1924) Miocene oreodonts in the American Museum, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 51 1, 1-37

Thorpe M. R. (1937) The Merycoidodontidae, an extinct group of ruminant mammals, Peabody Museum of Natural History Memoir 3 4, 1-428

Schultz C. B., Falkenbach C. H. (1949) Promerycochoerinae, a new subfamily of oreodonts, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 93 3, 69-198

Lander B. (1998) Oreodontoidea, Evolution of Tertiary mammals of North America, 402-425

Stevens M. S., Stevens J. B. (2007) Family Merycoidodontidae, The Evolution of Artiodactyls, 157-168

GBIF/Paleo Database - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera

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

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

Ann. Carnegie Mus., 4 (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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