Astrapotheriidae

Astrapotheriidae is an extinct family of herbivorous South American land mammals that lived from the Late Eocene to the Middle Miocene 37.71 to 15.98 million years ago. The most derived of the astrapotherians, they were also the largest and most specialized mammals in the Tertiary of South America. There are two sister taxa: Eoastrapostylopidae and Trigonostylopidae.

Astrapotheriidae

Dmitry Bogdanov · 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
AstrapotheriaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Astrapotheria
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Eutheria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 34 million years on record.

The record covers at least 42 Mya to 8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 5 Mya.

Eocene — about 15 of 159 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 19 of 159 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 124 of 159 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 159 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 2 occurrences43–41 Mya — about 2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–35 Mya — about 1 occurrence35–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence33–31 Mya — about 1 occurrence31–30 Mya — about 1 occurrence30–28 Mya — about 3 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 4 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 4 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 4 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 5 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 8 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 8 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 38 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 5 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 15 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 28 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 12 occurrences10–8.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences8.6–7.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.1–5.6 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences5.6–4.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42 Mya8 Mya48.9 Mya4.1 Mya

159 occurrences of Astrapotheriidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

159 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

31 formations

Santa Cruz — 51.02°S, 69.15°WSanta Cruz — 51.20°S, 69.12°WSanta Cruz — 50.16°S, 69.67°WSanta Cruz — 51.57°S, 69.42°WSanta Cruz — 51.05°S, 69.13°WSanta Cruz — 50.75°S, 69.18°WSanta Cruz — 51.34°S, 69.02°WSanta Cruz — 51.35°S, 69.00°WSanta Cruz — 51.56°S, 68.96°WSanta Cruz — 51.53°S, 72.09°WSanta Cruz — 47.52°S, 71.90°WSanta Cruz — 50.25°S, 71.07°WSanta Cruz — 50.28°S, 70.28°WSanta Cruz — 50.28°S, 70.22°WSanta Cruz — 51.60°S, 69.56°WVillavieja — 3.22°N, 75.22°WVillavieja — 3.32°N, 75.13°WVillavieja — 3.25°N, 75.17°WVillavieja — 3.21°N, 75.26°WVillavieja — 3.12°N, 75.21°WSarmiento — 44.67°S, 68.42°WSarmiento — 45.23°S, 67.49°WSarmiento — 45.33°S, 68.00°WSarmiento — 45.67°S, 68.67°WSarmiento — 43.75°S, 69.58°WSarmiento — 44.02°S, 68.02°WSarmiento — 47.03°S, 66.48°WSarmiento — 46.68°S, 68.35°WSarmiento — 44.35°S, 69.78°WLa Victoria — 3.22°N, 75.22°WLa Victoria — 3.78°N, 74.98°WLa Victoria — 3.32°N, 75.18°WLa Victoria — 3.23°N, 75.11°WLa Victoria — 3.27°N, 75.12°WLa Victoria — 3.39°N, 75.12°WCerro Bandera — 38.92°S, 69.58°WCerro Bandera — 39.27°S, 69.28°WCerro Bandera — 39.03°S, 69.68°WIpururo — 10.56°S, 73.13°WIpururo — 10.40°S, 73.52°WIpururo — 10.58°S, 73.60°WIpururo — 10.45°S, 73.55°WCastilletes — 11.95°N, 71.32°WCastilletes — 11.95°N, 71.33°WDeseado — 47.90°S, 66.25°WLas Chacras — 41.37°S, 69.65°WLas Chacras — 41.37°S, 69.65°WSolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WBarzalosa — 3.78°N, 75.18°WCura-Mallin — 38.00°S, 71.40°WCura-Mallín — 37.65°S, 71.23°WCura-Mallín — 38.52°S, 71.22°WChambira — 7.32°S, 74.93°WChambira — 7.35°S, 74.95°WSanta Cruz — 50.63°S, 72.47°WSolimões — 8.82°S, 72.82°WSolimões — 11.02°S, 68.87°WPozo — 6.58°S, 76.28°WGeste — 26.06°S, 67.41°WGalera — 46.90°S, 72.30°WBiblian — 2.75°S, 78.92°WAisol — 34.97°S, 68.54°WCastillo — 10.37°N, 70.05°WFray Bentos — 34.38°S, 56.18°WSalla — 17.18°S, 67.63°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Astrapotheriidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 26 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Astrapotheriidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Astrapotheriidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

841 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 97 sites for Astrapotheriidae, 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

64 references

Each of the 159 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. 52 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 Astrapotheriidae

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

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itAstrapotheria through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ameghino 1887