Whitneyan

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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 2.5 million years. [1] It is usually considered to fall within the Early Oligocene. The Whitneyan is preceded by the Orellan and followed by the Arikareean NALMA stages.

The Whitneyan is interchangeable with the Rupelian age. [2]

Ecology

The Whitneyan saw a minor decline in the diversity of feeding adaptations among North American predators. The main cause of this was the disappearance of a number of nimravids and hyaenodonts that were highly specialist carnivores combined with the appearance of a number of generalist, omnivorous canids. [3]

References

  1. ↑ Paleobiology Database, Whitneyan
  2. ↑ Paleobiology Database, Rupelian
  3. ↑ Van Valkenburgh, Blaire (October 1994). "Extinction and replacement among predatory mammals in the North American late Eocene and Oligocene: Tracking a paleoguild over twelve million years". Historical Biology . 8 (1–4): 129–150. doi:10.1080/10292389409380474. ISSN   0891-2963 . Retrieved 29 August 2025– via Taylor and Francis Online.


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