Anthracotherium

Anthracotherium is an extinct genus of anthracotheriid artiodactyls characterized by having 44 teeth, with five semi-crescentic cusps on the crowns of the upper molars. The genus ranged from the middle Eocene period until the early Miocene, having a distribution throughout Eurasia probably even reaching South East Asia. Material subjectively assigned to Anthracotherium from Pakistan suggests the last species died out soon after the start of the Miocene.

Anthracotherium

Ghedoghedo · 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
AnthracotheriinaePBDB
Diet
browserPBDB, for Anthracotheriidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Anthracotheriidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At least 21 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 15.98 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 11.63 Mya.

Eocene — about 32 of 70 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 33 of 70 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 5 of 70 occurrencesMiocene49–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 7 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 8 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 7 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 3 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 3 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 3 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 3 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 3 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 3 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 5 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 5 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 5 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37.71 Mya15.98 Mya48.8 Mya10.9 Mya

70 occurrences of Anthracotherium on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

70 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

15 formations

Pondaung — 21.70°N, 94.76°EPondaung — 21.62°N, 94.85°EPondaung — 21.95°N, 94.57°EPondaung — 21.90°N, 94.57°EPondaung — 21.97°N, 94.47°EPondaung — 21.75°N, 94.68°EYongning — 22.82°N, 108.32°EManchar — 26.33°N, 67.83°EChitarwata — 28.85°N, 69.12°EBreitheid — 50.68°N, 8.20°EBreitheid — 50.53°N, 7.95°EHeadon Hill — 50.72°N, 1.59°WLushi — 34.05°N, 111.03°EChinji — 32.82°N, 75.37°EBohlen — 51.19°N, 12.46°ECypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WKrabi Basin B2 — 7.97°N, 99.06°ENadu — 23.67°N, 107.25°EGongkang — 24.12°N, 106.62°EViens Marl — 43.93°N, 5.68°ECastelgomberto — 45.42°N, 11.50°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Anthracotherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 27 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Anthracotherium and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Anthracotherium and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

568 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 61 sites for Anthracotherium, 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

31 references

Each of the 70 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. 19 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 content1

Picture of Anthracotherium

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

No 3D scan of Anthracotherium was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itAnthracotheriinae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cuvier 1822