Didymoconus

Didymoconus is an extinct genus of mammal that lived during the early Oligocene epoch. It was endemic to Asia, and its fossils have been found in Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan. It is the type genus of the Didymoconidae, a family of eutherian mammals with uncertain taxonomic affinities.

Didymoconus

Matthew, William Diller; Granger, Walter · 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
DidymoconinaePBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Theria
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Eutheria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 11 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 33.9 Mya and 23.04 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 0 of 15 occurrencesOligocene — about 15 of 15 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 15 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences34.4 Mya22.5 Mya

15 occurrences of Didymoconus 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

15 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

6 formations

Hsanda Gol — 45.27°N, 101.77°EHsanda Gol — 45.29°N, 101.63°EHsanda Gol — 45.39°N, 101.24°EHsanda Gol — 45.46°N, 101.20°EWulanbulage — 39.83°N, 108.73°EChelkarnura — 48.67°N, 60.00°EUlantatal — 39.20°N, 105.57°EQingshuiying — 36.60°N, 105.69°ELoh — 45.49°N, 101.20°E

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The named rock units Didymoconus 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.

Didymoconus and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Didymoconus and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

153 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Didymoconus, 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 15 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 Didymoconus

Credit
Matthew, William Diller; Granger, Walter
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Didymoconus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itDidymoconinae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Matthew and Granger 1924