The Daphoeninae are an extinct subfamily of dog-like,

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...

carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other s ...

s, which belonged to the family

Amphicyonidae Amphicyonidae is an extinct family of terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an ...

of the suborder Caniformia. The group inhabited North America from the

Middle Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', "da ...

subepoch to the Middle Miocene subepoch 42—15.97 million years ago (Mya), existing for about .

Fossil distribution

''Daphoenus'' fossils found in late Oligocene rocks in the Great Plains are dated about 28 million years old. ''Daphoenus'' survived to 27 Mya in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...

in the John Day beds of Oregon. Other sites include: Alachua County, Florida (

Whitneyan The Whitneyan North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), typically set from 33,300,000 to 30,800,000 years BP, a period of . It is usuall ...

) estimated at 31.1—24.3 Ma., Tecuya Canyon,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

(

Arikareean The Arikareean North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), typically set from 30,600,000 to 20,800,000 years BP, a period of . It is usuall ...

age) 30.8—20.6 Ma., Haystack Member Formation,

Wheeler County, Oregon Wheeler County is a county in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,451, making it Oregon's least populous county. It is named in honor of , an early settler who owned a farm near Mitchell. The county seat is ...

(

Hemingfordian The Hemingfordian on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), typically set from 20,600,000 to 16,300,000 years BP. It is usually considered to overlap the lates ...

) 20.6—16.3 Mya, Lac Pelletier,

Alberta, Canada Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territ ...

(

Duchesnean The Duchesnean North American Stage on the geologic timescale is a North American Land Mammal Age (NALMA), with an age from 42 to 38 million years BP, representing . It falls within the Eocene epoch. The Duchesnean is preceded by the Uintan and ...

) around 42 Mya.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5221764 Bear dogs Eocene carnivorans Oligocene carnivorans Burdigalian extinctions Prehistoric mammals of North America White River Fauna Rupelian first appearances