Catodontherium

Catodontherium is an extinct genus of artiodactyl belonging to the family Anoplotheriidae. It was endemic to Western Europe during the Palaeogene era and had a temporal range exclusive to the middle Eocene, although its earliest appearance depends on whether C. argentonicum is truly a species of Catodontherium. It was first named Catodus by the French palaeontologist Charles Depéret in 1906, who created two species for the genus and later changed the genus name to Catodontherium in 1908. The Swiss palaeontologist Hans Georg Stehlin renamed one species and classified two other newly erected species to Catodontherium in 1910. Today, there are four known species, although two remain questionable in genus placement.

Catodontherium

Ghedoghedo · 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
DacrytheriinaePBDB
Diet
folivorePBDB, for Anoplotheriidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 3.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Eocene — about 18 of 18 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 18 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 2 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 2 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 2 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41.03 Mya37.71 Mya48.6 Mya33.4 Mya

18 occurrences of Catodontherium 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

18 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

2 formations

Upper Headon Beds — 50.63°N, 1.55°WBellmunt — 42.17°N, 2.01°E

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The named rock units Catodontherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Catodontherium and its relatives

Eocene

Where Catodontherium and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

155 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Catodontherium, 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

6 references

Each of the 18 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 Catodontherium

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

No 3D scan of Catodontherium 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 itDacrytheriinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Deperet 1908