Eocaiman

Eocaiman is an extinct genus of caiman containing species living from the Early Paleocene to Miocene in what is now Argentina, Itaboraí Formation of Brazil and Colombia. Eocaiman contains three described species: E. cavernensis, E. palaeocenicus, and E. itaboraiensis, and is typically recovered as one of the more basal members of Caimaninae. Notocaiman was synonymized with Eocaiman paleocenicus in 2022.

Eocaiman

Massonne T, Augustin FJ · CC0 · 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
GlobidontaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 47 million years on record.

The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 13.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 11 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 7 occurrencesPaleocene — about 3 of 7 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 2 of 7 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 7 occurrencesMiocene — about 2 of 7 occurrencesMiocene67–65 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 1 occurrence63–61 Mya — about 1 occurrence58–56 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–9.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences61.66 Mya13.8 Mya67 Mya10 Mya

7 occurrences of Eocaiman on record, most of them in the Paleocene. 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

7 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

4 formations

Salamanca — 45.23°S, 67.10°WSarmiento — 45.50°S, 68.80°WPeñas Coloradas — 45.07°S, 67.22°WItaboraí — 22.84°S, 42.88°W

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The named rock units Eocaiman has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Eocaiman and its relatives

Paleocene

Where Eocaiman and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.

Found in the same rock

70 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Eocaiman, 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 7 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 Eocaiman

Credit
Massonne T, Augustin FJ
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Eocaiman 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 itGlobidonta through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Simpson 1933