Palaeogale

Palaeogale is an extinct genus of carnivorous mammal known from the Late Eocene, Oligocene, and Early Miocene of North America, Europe, and Eastern Asia. A small carnivore often associated with the mustelids, Palaeogale might have been similar to living genets, civets, and linsangs.

Palaeogale

William Diller Matthew (1871–1930) · Public Domain · 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
PalaeogalidaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Carnivora
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Carnivora
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 17 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 16.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 37 Mya to 7.246 Mya.

Eocene — about 3 of 61 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 40 of 61 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 19 of 61 occurrencesMiocene38–37 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 4 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 8 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 6 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 3 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 3 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 4 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 4 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 3 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence23–22 Mya — about 3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 4 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–8.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.7–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–6.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences33.9 Mya16.9 Mya37.6 Mya6.7 Mya

61 occurrences of Palaeogale on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

61 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

16 formations

Hsanda Gol — 45.30°N, 101.62°EHsanda Gol — 45.27°N, 101.77°EHsanda Gol — 45.39°N, 101.24°EHsanda Gol — 45.40°N, 101.27°EHsanda Gol — 45.30°N, 102.08°EBrule — 40.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 42.90°N, 105.20°WBrule — 43.90°N, 102.40°WBrule — 43.60°N, 102.45°WBrule — 41.70°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.75°N, 101.94°WSharps — 43.30°N, 102.50°WUlantatal — 39.20°N, 105.57°EJohn Day — 45.08°N, 119.87°WJohn Day — 44.65°N, 119.64°WRenova — 45.90°N, 112.25°WSage Creek — 45.00°N, 112.80°WCypress Hills — 49.60°N, 108.80°WGering — 41.70°N, 103.10°WHarrison — 42.40°N, 103.80°WRunningwater — 42.75°N, 102.02°WBatesland — 43.13°N, 101.87°WWildcat Hills Beds — 41.70°N, 103.67°WSuosuoquan — 46.66°N, 88.34°ESables de l'Orleanais — 48.06°N, 2.07°EChadron — 42.75°N, 103.65°W

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The named rock units Palaeogale has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 23 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Palaeogale and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Palaeogale and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

966 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 56 sites for Palaeogale, 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

35 references

Each of the 61 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. 23 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 Palaeogale

Credit
William Diller Matthew (1871–1930)
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Palaeogale 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 itPalaeogalidae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. von Meyer 1846