Deltatheridiidae

Deltatheridiidae is an extinct family of basal carnivorous metatherians that lived during the Cretaceous and Paleogene. They were closely related to marsupials. Their fossils are restricted to Central Asia and North America. They mostly disappeared in the KT event, but a ghost lineage, currently represented by Gurbanodelta, survived until the late Paleocene by decreasing in size and becoming insectivorous.

Deltatheridiidae

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
DeltatheroidaPBDB
Diet
carnivore, durophagePBDB
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Theria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

Time the record covers

At least 50 million years on record.

The record covers at least 110.1 Mya to 59.24 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 121.4 Mya to 56 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 11 of 37 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 25 of 37 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 37 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 37 occurrences123–120 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences120–118 Mya — about 1 occurrence118–116 Mya — about 2 occurrences116–114 Mya — about 2 occurrences114–111 Mya — about 2 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 1 occurrence109–107 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences96–93 Mya — about 2 occurrences93–91 Mya — about 7 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 4 occurrences89–86 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences86–84 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences84–82 Mya — about 1 occurrence82–80 Mya — about 2 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 2 occurrences77–75 Mya — about 2 occurrences75–73 Mya — about 2 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 1 occurrence71–68 Mya — about 1 occurrence68–66 Mya — about 1 occurrence66–64 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences59–57 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences110.1 Mya59.24 Mya123 Mya55 Mya

37 occurrences of Deltatheridiidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

37 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

Bissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°EAntlers — 34.15°N, 95.82°WAntlers — 33.50°N, 97.58°WBaruungoyot — 43.49°N, 101.13°EBaruungoyot — 43.32°N, 99.83°EBaruungoyot — 43.30°N, 99.60°ECloverly — 44.51°N, 107.90°WCloverly — 44.50°N, 107.82°WCloverly — 45.10°N, 106.90°WDjadokhta — 43.66°N, 100.90°EDjadokhta — 44.00°N, 104.00°EStraight Cliffs — 37.80°N, 111.50°WFrenchman — 49.52°N, 108.82°WDabrazhin — 41.75°N, 68.52°EAitym — 42.12°N, 62.66°ELance — 43.21°N, 104.55°WQiupa — 34.03°N, 111.68°EBaynshire — 44.30°N, 109.23°E

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The named rock units Deltatheridiidae 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.

Deltatheridiidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Deltatheridiidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

373 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 27 sites for Deltatheridiidae, 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 37 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 content1

Picture of Deltatheridiidae

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Deltatheridiidae 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 itDeltatheroida through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gregory and Simpson 1926