Plagiolophus

Plagiolophus is an extinct genus of equoids belonging to the family Palaeotheriidae. It lived in Europe from the middle Eocene to the early Oligocene. The type species, P. minor, was described in 1804 by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier based on fossils from the Paris Basin, France, including a now-lost skeleton. Cuvier assigned the species to the genus Palaeotherium, and in 1847, Auguste Pomel assigned it to the new subgenus Plagiolophus. Plagiolophus was promoted to genus rank by subsequent palaeontologists and today includes as many as seventeen species. As proposed by the French palaeontologist Jean A. Remy in 2004, it contains three subgenera: Plagiolophus, Paloplotherium, and Fraasiolophus.

Plagiolophus

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
PalaeotheriinaePBDB
Diet
frugivore, folivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 32 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 33.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 23.04 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 90 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 90 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 78 of 90 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 9 of 90 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 90 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences70–68 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences68–66 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences60–58 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 1 occurrence56–54 Mya — about 1 occurrence54–53 Mya — about 1 occurrence53–51 Mya — about 1 occurrence51–49 Mya — about 1 occurrence49–48 Mya — about 1 occurrence48–46 Mya — about 2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 2 occurrences43–41 Mya — about 3 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 11 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 12 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 20 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 20 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 3 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences66 Mya33.9 Mya73 Mya22 Mya

90 occurrences of Plagiolophus 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

90 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

22 formations

Bembridge Limestone — 50.67°N, 1.53°WBembridge Limestone — 50.67°N, 1.55°WHeadon Hill — 50.72°N, 1.59°WHeadon Hill — 50.72°N, 1.22°WPerrière — 44.37°N, 1.73°EPerrière — 44.38°N, 1.43°EPerrière — 44.35°N, 1.73°ECastrais — 43.71°N, 2.14°ECastrais — 43.70°N, 2.20°EHeadon Beds — 50.72°N, 1.59°WGhazij — 28.92°N, 69.83°EGhazij — 28.90°N, 67.50°ECreechbarrow Limestone — 50.65°N, 2.12°WUpper Headon Beds — 50.63°N, 1.55°WMazaterón — 41.53°N, 2.12°WCorrales — 41.37°N, 5.75°WEntrala — 41.40°N, 5.67°WEifel — 50.10°N, 6.84°EAger — 42.31°N, 0.52°ECollegats — 42.25°N, 1.08°EPerriere — 44.37°N, 1.73°EBouldnor — 50.71°N, 1.50°WBarton Clay — 50.74°N, 1.66°WKiscell Clay — 47.54°N, 19.02°EAmeki — 5.75°N, 7.70°EPatala — 32.99°N, 71.55°ESables du Castrais — 43.78°N, 2.19°EJagüel — 35.83°S, 69.67°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Plagiolophus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 57 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Plagiolophus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Plagiolophus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

810 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 63 sites for Plagiolophus, 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

45 references

Each of the 90 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. 33 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 content2

Picture of Plagiolophus

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Plagiolophus sp. · mnhn:f:qu-7772

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 itPalaeotheriinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Pomel 1847