Orycteropus

Orycteropus is a genus of mammals in the family Orycteropodidae within Tubulidentata. The genus is known from Late Miocene to recent of Africa.

Orycteropus

Kelly Abram · 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
Also called
aardvarkPBDB
Sits inside
OrycteropodinaePBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB
Life habit
semifossorialPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 101 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 43 of 101 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 16 of 101 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 31 of 101 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 3 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 3 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 6 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 7 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 9 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 9 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 9 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 25 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

101 occurrences of Orycteropus on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

101 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

27 formations

Vogel River Series — 3.24°S, 35.22°EVogel River Series — 3.25°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°ESwartkrans — 26.02°S, 27.72°EKoobi Fora — 3.90°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 4.31°N, 36.28°EKoobi Fora — 3.70°N, 36.32°ENagri — 32.77°N, 72.50°EKapthurin — 0.50°N, 36.00°ELukeino — 0.50°N, 35.67°EMaboko — 0.15°S, 34.60°EMaboko — 0.15°N, 34.62°EVarswater & Bredasdorp — 32.98°S, 18.15°ENgorora — 0.90°N, 35.85°ETiim — 0.84°N, 35.82°EUpper Koru Series — 0.23°S, 35.34°ENubia — 16.25°N, 33.75°EMakapansgat — 24.20°S, 28.95°EKakara — 1.00°N, 30.50°EMuhroni Agglomerates — 0.14°S, 35.21°ENawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENawata or Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EBou Hanifia — 35.30°N, 0.10°WAdu-Asa — 10.32°N, 40.25°EManchar — 26.87°N, 67.32°ESagantole — 10.43°N, 40.38°EYatagan — 37.34°N, 28.24°ENea Messimvria — 40.74°N, 22.86°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Orycteropus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 57 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Orycteropus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Orycteropus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,224 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 100 sites for Orycteropus, 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

70 references

Each of the 101 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. 58 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 content2

Picture of Orycteropus

Credit
Kelly Abram
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itOrycteropodinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Geoffroy 1791