SAGE MUSEUM
← BACK TO DINOSAURS & DEEP TIME
Early dog. Representative evidence-type visual; not the exact specimen.
OBJECT DOSSIER · SMITHSONIAN OPEN ACCESS

Early dog — Hesperocyon gregarius

SAGE Museum Deep Time scientific dossier
Date / Period
Oligocene — Orellan · Oligocene, Orellan.
Object Type
fossil skeletal material
Medium
representative_scientific_visual
About This Object

Geologic period: Oligocene — Orellan

Age: Oligocene, Orellan.

Feeding: Carnivorous or omnivorous predatory mammal.

Evidence: Skull and jaw anatomy directly document early canid features.

Why it matters: Hesperocyon shows that the dog lineage had already begun diversifying tens of millions of years before wolves, coyotes and modern foxes appeared.

Plain Language Identity: An early member of the dog family lineage from the Oligocene.

What You Are Looking At: Hesperocyon fossil material representing an early canid.

Ecosystem: Oligocene terrestrial ecosystem of North America.

Source Urls: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour/current-exhibits/deep-time-virtual-tour-fossil-list; https://www.si.edu/object/nmnhpaleobiology_3440634

Formation: Brule Formation, White River Group

Find Location: Wyoming, United States.

Enrichment Method: SAGE curated research pass; title + scientific name + source scene matched; chronology and taxonomy conflicts retained rather than silently corrected; evidence separated from inference

Scientific name: Hesperocyon gregarius

Evidence / representation: Representative evidence-type visual; not the exact specimen.

Why It Is In This SAGE Exhibit

Representative evidence-type visual; not the exact specimen.

After the Dinosaurs: Mammals, Ice Ages and the World We Inherited.

Provenance
Smithsonian Deep Time source scene: Rainforests Spread Across the Globe
Exhibition History
Included in the SAGE Museum Dinosaurs & Deep Time staging exhibit.
Subjects & Themes
Hesperocyon gregarius Oligocene — Orellan fossil skeletal material Rainforests Spread Across the Globe After the Dinosaurs
ORIGINAL COLLECTION SOURCE

This object page stays inside SAGE Museum. The Smithsonian link below is provided only as the original scholarly collection record. It opens separately.