Interatherium
Interatherium is an extinct genus of interatheriid notoungulate that lived from the Early to Middle Miocene (Colhuehuapian-Mayoan). Fossils of this genus have been found in the Santa Cruz, Collón Curá and Sarmiento Formations in Argentina.

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 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
- InteratheriidaePBDB
- Diet
- herbivorePBDB, for Notoungulata
- Life habit
- scansorialPBDB, for Eutheria
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 800 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 16.3 Mya to 15.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 13.8 Mya.
36 occurrences of Interatherium on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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
36 occurrences- Miocene100%
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
- Santa Cruz Formation33
- Collón Cura Formation1
- Sarmiento Formation1
- Cerro Boleadoras Formation · Río Zeballos Group1
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The named rock units Interatherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Interatherium and its relatives
MioceneWhere Interatherium and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
211 taxa- Nesodon12 sites
- Adinotherium11 sites
- Hapalops11 sites
- Neoreomys australis11 sites
- Adinotherium ovinum10 sites
- Neoreomys10 sites
- Protypotherium praerutilum10 sites
- Sipalocyon gracilis10 sites
- Cladosictis patagonica9 sites
- Perimys9 sites
- Proeutatus oenophorum9 sites
- Propalaehoplophoridae9 sites
- Protypotherium9 sites
- Protypotherium australe9 sites
- Astrapotherium8 sites
- Astrapotherium magnum8 sites
- Nesodon imbricatus8 sites
- Proeutatus8 sites
- Prozaedyus proximus8 sites
- Acarechimys minutissimus7 sites
- Acarechimys minutus7 sites
- Acdestis oweni7 sites
- Borhyaena tuberata7 sites
- Hegetotherium mirabile7 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 26 sites for Interatherium, 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
12 references- Paleobiology of Santacrucian native ungulates (Meridiungulata: Astrapotheria, Litoptera and Notoungulata)12
- Systematic Revision of Interatherium and Icochilus (Interatheriidae, Notoungulata) from the Santa Cruz Formation (Early To Middle Miocene), Santa Cruz Province, Argentina6
- Notoungulata and Astrapotheria (Mammalia, Meridiungulata) of the Santa Cruz Formation (Early-Middle Miocene) Along the Río Santa Cruz, Argentine Patagonia4
- Bioestratigrafía de la Formación Santa Cruz (Mioceno Inferior) en el extremo sudeste de la Patagonia4
- Sedimentology and fossil vertebrates of the Santa Cruz formation (early Miocene) in Lago Posadas, southwestern Patagonia, Argentina2
- Fossil localities of the Santa Cruz Formation (Early Miocene, Patagonia, Argentina) prospected by Carlos Ameghino in 1887 revisited and the location of the Notohippidian2
- Fossil vertebrates of the early-middle Miocene Cerro Boleadoras Formation, northwestern Santa Cruz Province, Patagonia, Argentina1
- Paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the coastal Monte Leon and Santa Cruz formations (Early Miocene) at Rincon del Buque, Southern Patagonia: A revisited locality1
- A new mammal fauna at the top of the Gran Barranca sequence and its biochronological significance1
- A baseline paleoecological study of the Santa Cruz Formation (late-early Miocene) at the Atlantic coast of Patagonia, Argentina1
- Two new fossil vertebrate localities in the Santa Cruz Formation (late early – early middle Miocene, Argentina), ~ 51° South latitude1
- La formación Collon-Cura de Pilcaniyeu Viejo y sus alrededores (Río Negro, República Argentina) su antiguedad y las condiciones ambientales según su distribución su litogenesis y sus vertebrados1
Each of the 36 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 Interatherium
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Jonathan Chen
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
Photogrammetry
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Interatherium extensum · NHMUK:PAL:PV M 9181
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 itInteratheriidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ameghino 1887