Microbiotheria

Microbiotheria is an australidelphian marsupial order that encompasses two families, one living, the Microbiotheriidae, and the extinct Eocene period Woodburnodontidae. It is represented by only one extant species, the monito del monte, and a number of extinct species known from fossils in South America, Western Antarctica, and northeastern Australia.

Microbiotheria

José Luis Bartheld from Valdivia, Chile · CC BY 2.0 · 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
AustralidelphiaPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Marsupialia
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Marsupialia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

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 75 occurrencesPaleocene — about 1 of 75 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 15 of 75 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 6 of 75 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 53 of 75 occurrencesMiocene67–65 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 1 occurrence54–52 Mya — about 1 occurrence52–50 Mya — about 1 occurrence50–48 Mya — about 1 occurrence48–46 Mya — about 2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 2 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 1 occurrence39–37 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences37–35 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence33–31 Mya — about 1 occurrence31–29 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–27 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 7 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 9 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 35 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences12–9.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences61.66 Mya13.8 Mya67 Mya10 Mya

75 occurrences of Microbiotheria on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

75 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

13 formations

Santa Cruz — 50.35°S, 68.95°WSanta Cruz — 50.35°S, 69.03°WSanta Cruz — 50.85°S, 69.13°WSanta Cruz — 50.60°S, 69.08°WSanta Cruz — 51.20°S, 69.12°WSanta Cruz — 51.57°S, 69.42°WSanta Cruz — 51.57°S, 69.47°WSanta Cruz — 48.52°S, 69.72°WSanta Cruz — 50.05°S, 70.44°WSanta Cruz — 50.00°S, 70.00°WSanta Cruz — 50.75°S, 69.18°WSanta Cruz — 50.28°S, 70.28°WSarmiento — 45.67°S, 68.67°WSarmiento — 43.28°S, 65.48°WPinturas — 46.99°S, 70.59°WPinturas — 47.03°S, 70.67°WItaboraí — 22.84°S, 42.88°WLa Meseta — 64.23°S, 56.67°WLas Flores — 45.60°S, 69.08°WAndesitas Huancache — 42.78°S, 69.86°WChambira — 7.32°S, 74.93°WChambira — 7.35°S, 74.95°WRío Frias — 44.58°S, 71.22°WSanta Lucía — 18.03°S, 65.58°WVillavieja — 3.28°N, 75.20°WYahuarango — 9.49°S, 72.76°WMonte Leon — 50.34°S, 68.96°W

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The named rock units Microbiotheria has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Microbiotheria and its relatives

Miocene

Where Microbiotheria and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

639 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 32 sites for Microbiotheria, 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

27 references

Each of the 75 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. 15 further references are not listed. 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 Microbiotheria

Credit
José Luis Bartheld from Valdivia, Chile
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Microbiotheria 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 itAustralidelphia through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ameghino 1899