Bachitherium

Bachitherium is an extinct genus of Paleogene ruminants that lived in Europe from the late Eocene to the late Oligocene. The genus was erected in 1882 by Henri Filhol based on fossil remains found in the Quercy Phosphorites Formation. Bachitherium curtum was defined the type species, and another species called B. insigne; five more species have since been named although one, B. sardus, is currently pending reassessment. The genus name derives from "Bach", the French locality where its first fossils were found, and the Greek θήρ/therium meaning "beast". Bachitherium has historically been assigned to various families within the ruminant infrorder Tragulina, but was reclassified to its own monotypic family Bachitheriidae by Christine Janis in 1987.

Bachitherium

Lubman04 · CC BY-SA 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
BachitheriidaePBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Artiodactyla
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Artiodactyla
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At least 6.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 27.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 23.04 Mya.

Eocene — about 2 of 23 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 21 of 23 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 23 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence33–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence33–32 Mya — about 1 occurrence32–31 Mya — about 1 occurrence31–31 Mya — about 1 occurrence31–30 Mya — about 1 occurrence30–30 Mya — about 1 occurrence30–29 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–28 Mya — about 1 occurrence28–28 Mya — about 1 occurrence28–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–25 Mya — about 1 occurrence25–24 Mya — about 1 occurrence24–24 Mya — about 1 occurrence24–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence23–23 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences33.9 Mya27.3 Mya41.5 Mya22.5 Mya

23 occurrences of Bachitherium 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

23 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

1 formation

Alzey — 49.79°N, 7.98°E

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The named rock units Bachitherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 22 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Bachitherium and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Bachitherium and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

264 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 20 sites for Bachitherium, 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

12 references

Each of the 23 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. 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 Bachitherium

Credit
Lubman04
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Bachitherium 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 itBachitheriidae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Filhol 1882