Ctenacodon

Ctenacodon is a genus of extinct mammal that lived in what is now North America during the Upper Jurassic period. It is a member of the family Allodontidae within the order Multituberculata. Ctenacodon, also known as Allodon, was named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1879. At least three species are currently recognized.

Ctenacodon

Othniel Charles Marsh · Public Domain · 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
AllodontidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Multituberculata
Life habit
arborealPBDB, for Multituberculata
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

Time the record covers

At least 4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 145.06 Mya to 141 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 154.8 Mya to 139.1 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 9 of 10 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 10 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous155–155 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences154–154 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences153–153 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences151–151 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences150–150 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences149–149 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences148–148 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences146–146 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences145–145 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences144–144 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences141–141 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences141–140 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences140–140 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences140–139 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences139–139 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences145.06 Mya141 Mya155.3 Mya138.6 Mya

10 occurrences of Ctenacodon on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. 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

10 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

Morrison — 41.89°N, 106.00°WMorrison — 41.98°N, 106.15°WMorrison — 40.47°N, 109.18°WLulworth — 50.60°N, 1.97°W

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

Ctenacodon and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Ctenacodon and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

152 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Ctenacodon, 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

7 references

Each of the 10 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 Ctenacodon

Credit
Othniel Charles Marsh
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ctenacodon 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 itAllodontidae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

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