Malleodectes

Malleodectes is an extinct genus of unusual marsupial, first discovered in 2011 at Riversleigh, Queensland, Australia.

Malleodectes

M. Archer, S. J. Hand, K. H. Black, R. M. D. Beck, D. A. Arena, L. A. B. Wilson, S. Kealy & T.-t. Hung · 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
MalleodectidaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Marsupialia
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Marsupialia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

Time the record covers

At most 22 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 27.3 Mya and 5.333 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Oligocene — about 0 of 4 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 4 of 4 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 4 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.4–8.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.7–7.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.9–7.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.1–6.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.4–5.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.6–4.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27.8 Mya4.8 Mya

4 occurrences of Malleodectes 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

4 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.

Malleodectes and its relatives

Miocene

Where Malleodectes and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

47 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Malleodectes, 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

1 reference

Each of the 4 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Malleodectes

Credit
M. Archer, S. J. Hand, K. H. Black, R. M. D. Beck, D. A. Arena, L. A. B. Wilson, S. Kealy & T.-t. Hung
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Malleodectes 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 itMalleodectidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Arena et al. 2011