Astrapotherium

Astrapotherium is an extinct genus of large astrapotherian ungulate native to South America during the early-middle Miocene. It is the best known member of the group. The type species. A. magnum have been found in the Santa Cruz Formation in Argentina. Other fossils have been found in the Deseado, Sarmiento, and Aisol Formations of Argentina and Chile.

Astrapotherium

(c) Field Museum of Natural History . CC BY-NC 4.0 . https://fm-digital-assets.fieldmuseum.org/525/862/GEO78432.jpg .… · CC BY 4.0 · 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
AstrapotheriidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Astrapotheria
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Eutheria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 5.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 21 Mya to 15.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 29 Mya to 13.8 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 40 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 39 of 40 occurrencesMiocene30–29 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 11 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 15 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 7 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21 Mya15.5 Mya29.5 Mya13.3 Mya

40 occurrences of Astrapotherium 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

40 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

12 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 — 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°WDeseado — 47.90°S, 66.25°WGalera — 46.90°S, 72.30°WCura-Mallin — 38.00°S, 71.40°WAisol — 34.97°S, 68.54°WSarmiento — 45.67°S, 68.71°WRío Frías — 44.58°S, 71.23°WCerro Bandera — 39.27°S, 69.28°WPalomares — 52.57°S, 70.96°WLas Flores — 50.70°S, 72.48°WCura-Mallín — 38.52°S, 71.22°WCollón Cura — 40.85°S, 70.23°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Astrapotherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Astrapotherium and its relatives

Miocene

Where Astrapotherium and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

215 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 27 sites for Astrapotherium, 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

21 references

Each of the 40 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. 9 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 Astrapotherium

Credit
(c) Field Museum of Natural History . CC BY-NC 4.0 . https://fm-digital-assets.fieldmuseum.org/525/862/GEO78432.jpg .…
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Astrapotherium magnum · NHMUK:PAL:PV M 11357

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

Everything alive alongside itAstrapotheriidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Burmeister 1879