Petauroidea

Petauroidea is a superfamily of marsupials from Australia and New Guinea. It is part of the suborder Phalangeriformes within the order Diprotodontia, which also includes, among others, wombats, kangaroos, cuscuses. The superfamily Phalangeroidea, including cuscuses and brushtail possums and pygmy possums, is the immediate sister group of the Petauroidea. The earliest fossils from this superfamily are from the Oligocene of the Geilston Bay fossil site in Tasmania.

Petauroidea

Uncredited · CC BY-SA 2.5 · 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
DiprotodontaPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Mammaliaformes
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Mammaliaformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 7.246 Mya.

Eocene — about 0 of 10 occurrencesOligocene — about 6 of 10 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 4 of 10 occurrencesMiocene34–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–25 Mya — about 1 occurrence25–24 Mya — about 1 occurrence24–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–9.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.5–8.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.6–7.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.6–6.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23.04 Mya11.63 Mya34.4 Mya6.7 Mya

10 occurrences of Petauroidea on record. 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

10 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

3 formations

Namba — 31.17°S, 140.23°ENamba — 31.02°S, 140.32°ENamba — 30.90°S, 140.17°EEtadunna — 28.78°S, 138.42°EEttadunna — 28.78°S, 138.42°E

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The named rock units Petauroidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

131 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Petauroidea, 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

6 references

Each of the 10 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 Petauroidea

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Petauroidea was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itDiprotodonta through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gill 1872