Pelycodus

Pelycodus is an extinct genus of adapiform primate that lived during the early Eocene (Wasatchian) period in Europe and North America, particularly Wyoming and New Mexico. It is very closely related to Cantius and may even be its subgenus. It may also have given rise to the Middle Eocene Uintan primate Hesperolemur, although this is controversial. From mass estimates based on the first molar, the two species, P. jarrovii and P. danielsae, weighed 4.5 kg and 6.3 kg respectively and were frugivores with an arboreal, quadrupedal locomotion.

Pelycodus

Uncredited · CC0 · 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
AdapidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Adapidae
Life habit
arborealPBDB, for Adapidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Adapidae

Time the record covers

At most 8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 56 Mya and 48.07 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Paleocene — about 0 of 11 occurrencesEocene — about 11 of 11 occurrencesEocene56–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56.5 Mya47.6 Mya

11 occurrences of Pelycodus 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

11 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

6 formations

DeBeque — 39.70°N, 107.60°WSan Jose — 35.70°N, 107.00°WSan Jose — 36.50°N, 107.00°WHuerfano — 37.80°N, 105.10°WWillwood — 44.62°N, 108.50°WLignites de Soissonais — 43.62°N, 5.75°ESuffolk Pebble Beds — 52.10°N, 1.32°E

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The named rock units Pelycodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Pelycodus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Pelycodus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

113 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Pelycodus, 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

7 references

Each of the 11 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 content2

Picture of Pelycodus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Pelycodus jarrovi · usgs:21782

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 itAdapidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1875