Anoplotherium

Anoplotherium is the type genus of the extinct Palaeogene artiodactyl family Anoplotheriidae, which was endemic to Western Europe. It lived from the Late Eocene to the earliest Oligocene. It was the fifth fossil mammal genus to be described with official taxonomic authority, with a history extending back to 1804 when its fossils from Montmartre in Paris, France were first described by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier. Discoveries of incomplete skeletons of A. commune in 1807 led Cuvier to thoroughly describe unusual features for which there are no modern analogues. His drawn skeletal and muscle reconstructions of A. commune in 1812 were amongst the first instances of anatomical reconstructions based on fossil evidence. Cuvier's contributions to palaeontology based on his works on the genus were revolutionary for the field, not only proving the developing ideas of extinction and ecological succession but also paving the way for subfields such as palaeoneurology. Today, there are four known species.

Anoplotherium

FunkMonk · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AnoplotheriinaePBDB
Diet
browserPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At most 11 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 37.71 Mya and 27.3 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 31 of 35 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 4 of 35 occurrencesOligocene38–37 Mya — about 2 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 3 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 3 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 3 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 3 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38.2 Mya26.8 Mya

35 occurrences of Anoplotherium on record, most of them in the Eocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

35 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

5 formations

Bembridge Limestone — 50.67°N, 1.55°WBembridge Limestone — 50.67°N, 1.48°WHeadon Hill — 50.72°N, 1.59°WHeadon Hill — 50.72°N, 1.18°WLower Hamstead Beds — 50.70°N, 1.50°WCoja — 40.27°N, 7.99°WBouldnor — 50.71°N, 1.50°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Anoplotherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 26 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Anoplotherium and its relatives

Eocene

Where Anoplotherium and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

189 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Anoplotherium, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

15 references

Each of the 35 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 3 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Anoplotherium

Credit
FunkMonk
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Anoplotherium commune · nhmuk:pal:PV M 3753

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAnoplotheriinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cuvier 1804