Palaeochiropteryx

Palaeochiropteryx is an extinct genus of bat from the Middle Eocene of Europe and North America. It contains three very similar species – Palaeochiropteryx tupaiodon and Palaeochiropteryx spiegeli, both from the famous Messel Pit of Germany, as well as Palaeochiropteryx sambuceus from the Sheep Pass Formation. They are usually found complete and exceptionally preserved, even retaining the outlines of their fur, ears, and wing membranes.

Palaeochiropteryx

Tommy from Arad · 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
PalaeochiropterygidaePBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Chiroptera
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Chiroptera
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Chiroptera

Time the record covers

At least 4.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 45.9 Mya to 41.03 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 37.71 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesEocene — about 6 of 6 occurrencesEocene57–56 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45.9 Mya41.03 Mya56.5 Mya37.2 Mya

6 occurrences of Palaeochiropteryx on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

6 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

2 formations

Messel — 49.93°N, 8.73°E"Sheep Pass" — 39.00°N, 114.10°W

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The named rock units Palaeochiropteryx has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Palaeochiropteryx and its relatives

Eocene

Where Palaeochiropteryx and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

197 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Palaeochiropteryx, 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

5 references

Each of the 6 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 content1

Picture of Palaeochiropteryx

Credit
Tommy from Arad
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itPalaeochiropterygidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Revilliod 1917