Cambaytherium

Cambaytherium is an extinct genus of placental mammals in the family Cambaytheriidae. It existed during the early Eocene approximately 55 million years ago on the Indian subcontinent. Fossils of Cambaytherium are known exclusively from the Cambay Shale Formation in western India and comprise over 200 specimens, including skulls, teeth, and postcranial elements. The genus and family were first described scientifically in 2005. Initially, placement at the base of the odd-toed ungulates was preferred, though some researchers suggested affinity with elephants within Tethytheria. Recent systematic analyses, based on abundant material, position it not at the base of odd-toed ungulates but in close relation to them. The genus's discovery on the subcontinent, then an island drifting northward toward Asia, offers insights into the origin and early evolution of the order Perissodactyla, hypothesized to have arisen in Asia.

Cambaytherium

SeismicShrimp · 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
PerissodactylaPBDB
Diet
browser, grazerPBDB, for Perissodactyla
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Perissodactyla
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 56 Mya and 48.07 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Paleocene — about 0 of 11 occurrencesEocene — about 11 of 11 occurrencesEocene56–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56.5 Mya47.6 Mya

11 occurrences of Cambaytherium 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

11 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

Cambay Shale — 21.33°N, 72.98°ECambay Shale — 21.40°N, 73.08°ECambay Shale — 21.35°N, 73.07°E

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The named rock units Cambaytherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Cambaytherium and its relatives

Eocene

Where Cambaytherium and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

94 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Cambaytherium, 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

5 references

Each of the 11 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Cambaytherium

Credit
SeismicShrimp
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Cambaytherium thewissi · gu:730

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 itPerissodactyla through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bajpai et al. 2005