Paranyctoides

Paranyctoides is an extinct genus of early eutherian mammal from the Late Cretaceous of North America and possibly Asia. It was named in 1979 by Fox for tooth and jaw material from the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta, which he named Paranyctoides sternbergi. Fox then named the second species P. maleficus for material from the older Milk River Formation. The species P. megakeros was named by Lillegraven and McKenna in 1986 from the "Mesaverde" Formation of Wyoming, and indeterminate species of Paranyctoides have been identified from the Kaiparowits, Wahweap, Kirtland, Hell Creek and Lance Formations of western North America. Material from the Maastrichtian Hell Creek and Lance Formations, as well as P. megakeros, have since been identified as Alostera saskatchewanensis, limiting Paranyctoides to the Santonian to Campanian in North America. In 2013 Averianov and Archibald considered P. maleficus a synonym of P. sternbergi, though this was not supported by Montellano-Ballesteros and colleagues the same year.

Paranyctoides

Archibald J.D., Averianov A.O. 2001. · 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
EutheriaPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Theria
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Eutheria
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 89.8 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 93.9 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 20 of 20 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 20 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences93–93 Mya — about 1 occurrence93–92 Mya — about 1 occurrence92–91 Mya — about 1 occurrence91–90 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences89–88 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences88–87 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences87–86 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 1 occurrence82–81 Mya — about 1 occurrence81–80 Mya — about 1 occurrence80–79 Mya — about 1 occurrence79–78 Mya — about 1 occurrence78–77 Mya — about 1 occurrence77–76 Mya — about 1 occurrence76–75 Mya — about 1 occurrence75–74 Mya — about 1 occurrence74–73 Mya — about 1 occurrence73–72 Mya — about 1 occurrence72–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89.8 Mya72.2 Mya94.5 Mya65.4 Mya

20 occurrences of Paranyctoides on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

20 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

8 formations

Wahweap — 37.60°N, 111.35°WJudith River — 47.81°N, 109.59°WJudith River — 48.93°N, 110.58°WKaiparowits — 37.80°N, 111.50°WKaiparowits — 37.42°N, 111.77°WKaiparowits — 37.40°N, 111.20°WBissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°EAitym — 42.12°N, 62.66°EOldman — 50.78°N, 110.50°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.68°WDinosaur Park — 49.96°N, 110.27°WEagle — 48.97°N, 111.82°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Paranyctoides has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Paranyctoides and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Paranyctoides and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

262 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Paranyctoides, 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

14 references

Each of the 20 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. 2 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 Paranyctoides

Credit
Archibald J.D., Averianov A.O. 2001.
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Paranyctoides 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 itEutheria through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fox 1979