Icaronycteris

Icaronycteris is an extinct genus of microchiropteran (echolocating) bat that lived in the early Eocene, approximately 52.2 million years ago, making it the earliest bat genus known from complete skeletons, and the earliest known bat from North America.

Icaronycteris

T.B. Rietbergen et al., with acknowledgement "Mike Eklund and Mick Ellison for additional photographs". · CC BY 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
IcaronycteridaePBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Chiroptera
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Chiroptera
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Chiroptera

Time the record covers

At most 19 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 56 Mya and 37.71 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Paleocene — about 0 of 9 occurrencesEocene — about 9 of 9 occurrencesEocene57–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56.5 Mya37.2 Mya

9 occurrences of Icaronycteris 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

9 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

7 formations

Green River — 41.80°N, 110.65°WGreen River — 41.86°N, 110.67°WLignites de Soissonais — 49.05°N, 4.00°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.08°N, 4.03°EWillwood — 44.78°N, 108.97°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WCambay Shale — 21.40°N, 73.08°EVaugirard — 48.81°N, 2.24°EHeti — 35.09°N, 111.86°E

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

Icaronycteris and its relatives

Eocene

Where Icaronycteris and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

241 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Icaronycteris, 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

8 references

Each of the 9 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 content2

Picture of Icaronycteris

Credit
T.B. Rietbergen et al., with acknowledgement "Mike Eklund and Mick Ellison for additional photographs".
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

MorphoSource 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 itIcaronycteridae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Jepsen 1966