Palaeotheriidae

Palaeotheriidae is an extinct family of herbivorous perissodactyl mammals that inhabited Europe, with less abundant remains also known from Asia, from the mid-Eocene to the early Oligocene. They are classified in Equoidea, along with the living family Equidae.

Palaeotheriidae

Frédéric Roman · 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
EquoideaPBDB
Diet
frugivore, folivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 17 million years on record.

The record covers at least 51.1 Mya to 33.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 27.3 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 665 occurrencesEocene — about 651 of 665 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 14 of 665 occurrencesOligocene57–56 Mya — about 18 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 42 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 42 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 42 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 42 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 24 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 7 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 7 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 13 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 20 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 19 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 18 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 18 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 18 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 18 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 27 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 42 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 42 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 42 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 40 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 40 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 40 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 32 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 2 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences51.1 Mya33.9 Mya56.6 Mya26.7 Mya

665 occurrences of Palaeotheriidae 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

665 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

50 formations

DeBeque — 40.00°N, 107.90°WDeBeque — 39.20°N, 108.20°WDeBeque — 39.70°N, 107.60°WWind River — 44.00°N, 106.60°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWind River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.33°WWasatch — 40.60°N, 108.10°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 107.00°WWasatch — 42.70°N, 110.10°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 110.70°WWasatch — 41.75°N, 108.00°WWasatch — 42.37°N, 108.91°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.62°N, 108.50°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 44.53°N, 108.43°WWillwood — 44.37°N, 108.67°WWillwood — 44.49°N, 108.81°WWillwood — 44.54°N, 108.63°WBembridge Limestone — 50.67°N, 1.53°WBembridge Limestone — 50.67°N, 1.55°WCastrais — 43.56°N, 2.18°ECastrais — 46.61°N, 2.24°ECastrais — 43.70°N, 2.20°ECastrais — 43.71°N, 2.14°EHeadon Hill — 50.72°N, 1.59°WHeadon Hill — 50.72°N, 1.22°WHeadon Hill — 50.71°N, 1.10°WHeadon Beds — 50.72°N, 1.59°WHeadon Beds — 50.75°N, 1.60°WMazaterón — 41.53°N, 2.12°WHuerfano — 37.80°N, 105.10°W"Wasatch" — 44.00°N, 106.60°WPerrière — 44.37°N, 1.73°EPerrière — 44.38°N, 1.43°EPerrière — 44.35°N, 1.73°EEifel — 50.10°N, 6.84°ECollegats — 42.25°N, 1.08°ECreechbarrow Limestone — 50.65°N, 2.12°WUpper Headon Beds — 50.63°N, 1.55°WSables du Castrais — 43.37°N, 1.99°ESables du Castrais — 43.78°N, 2.19°EBarton Clay — 50.79°N, 1.20°WBarton Clay — 50.74°N, 1.66°WMolasse de Carcassonne — 43.34°N, 2.03°EHannold Hill — 29.42°N, 103.14°WLower Variegated Sequence — 43.90°N, 110.80°WLower Variegated Sequence — 43.20°N, 108.20°WCorrales — 41.37°N, 5.75°WSelsey — 50.80°N, 1.20°WSan Jose — 35.70°N, 107.00°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Palaeotheriidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 26 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 347 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Palaeotheriidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Palaeotheriidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,255 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 363 sites for Palaeotheriidae, and this reads 240 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

115 references

Each of the 665 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. 103 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 Palaeotheriidae

Credit
Frédéric Roman
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Palaeotheriidae 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 itEquoidea through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bonaparte 1850