Mioproteus

Mioproteus is an extinct genus of prehistoric salamanders from Neogene Europe. Its living relatives are the olm and the mudpuppies. The species M. caucasicus is from the Middle Miocene. The species M. wezei first appears in the fossil record during the Pliocene, then disappears during the Middle Pleistocene.

Mioproteus

Apokryltaros · 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
ProteidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 27.3 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Eocene — about 0 of 23 occurrencesOligocene — about 3 of 23 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 19 of 23 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 23 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 23 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–9.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.6–8.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.5–7.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.4–6.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.3–5.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.0–2.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27.3 Mya3.6 Mya34.5 Mya2 Mya

23 occurrences of Mioproteus 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

23 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

Upper Freshwater Molasse — 48.44°N, 11.04°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.66°N, 10.23°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.09°N, 10.03°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.16°N, 10.11°EAral — 46.80°N, 60.58°EAral — 50.20°N, 66.80°EDâncu — 46.81°N, 23.51°EGaverdovsky — 44.61°N, 40.03°EBrackwater Molasse — 48.48°N, 10.10°EEdelény — 48.39°N, 20.64°EReuver clay — 50.90°N, 6.45°E

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The named rock units Mioproteus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mioproteus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Mioproteus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

581 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 23 sites for Mioproteus, 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

15 references

Each of the 23 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. 3 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 Mioproteus

Credit
Apokryltaros
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Mioproteus 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 itProteidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Estes and Darevsky 1978