Plesiadapidae

Plesiadapidae is a family of plesiadapiform mammals related to primates known from the Paleocene and Eocene of North America, Europe, and Asia. Plesiadapids were abundant in the late Paleocene, and their fossils are often used to establish the ages of fossil faunas.

Plesiadapidae

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
PlesiadapoideaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Plesiadapoidea
Life habit
arborealPBDB, for Plesiadapoidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Plesiadapoidea

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 63.4 Mya to 39.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 37 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 371 occurrencesPaleocene — about 315 of 371 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 56 of 371 occurrencesEocene67–66 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences65–64 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences64–63 Mya — about 5 occurrences63–62 Mya — about 6 occurrences62–61 Mya — about 23 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 55 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 61 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 63 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 65 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 36 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 4 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 4 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 4 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 4 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 6 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 7 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 7 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 5 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 4 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 2 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–36 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences63.4 Mya39.7 Mya66.6 Mya36.4 Mya

371 occurrences of Plesiadapidae on record, most of them in the Paleocene. 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

371 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

41 formations

Fort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WFort Union — 45.80°N, 104.40°WFort Union — 41.70°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 43.85°N, 108.35°WFort Union — 45.80°N, 109.80°WFort Union — 47.80°N, 106.10°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 103.90°WFort Union — 44.30°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 45.80°N, 110.50°WFort Union — 44.72°N, 108.38°WFort Union — 44.68°N, 108.32°WFort Union — 45.20°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.89°N, 108.91°WFort Union — 43.20°N, 107.10°WFort Union — 45.10°N, 106.90°WFort Union — 45.40°N, 105.60°WFort Union — 43.45°N, 109.16°WFort Union — 41.92°N, 108.56°WFort Union — 44.50°N, 108.00°WFort Union — 43.20°N, 108.20°WFort Union — 44.72°N, 108.62°WFort Union — 44.67°N, 108.46°WFort Union — 39.27°N, 108.18°WFort Union — 44.51°N, 108.88°WFort Union — 44.53°N, 108.96°WFort Union — 44.83°N, 108.82°WFort Union — 44.05°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.88°N, 109.12°WFort Union — 44.85°N, 108.77°WFort Union — 44.90°N, 109.01°WFort Union — 44.85°N, 108.74°WFort Union — 44.85°N, 108.89°WFort Union — 41.68°N, 107.52°WFort Union — 41.56°N, 108.63°WFort Union — 41.83°N, 108.60°WPaskapoo — 51.00°N, 114.10°WPaskapoo — 53.23°N, 114.70°WPaskapoo — 52.40°N, 113.80°WPaskapoo — 52.20°N, 113.70°WPaskapoo — 51.18°N, 114.43°WPaskapoo — 52.20°N, 113.60°WPaskapoo — 51.50°N, 112.30°WPaskapoo — 52.35°N, 113.77°WPaskapoo — 54.80°N, 115.46°WPaskapoo — 51.10°N, 114.50°WBridger — 41.70°N, 109.00°WBridger — 41.80°N, 110.70°WBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WGoler — 35.55°N, 117.83°WGoler — 35.50°N, 117.77°WGoler — 35.50°N, 117.97°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 110.70°WWasatch — 41.27°N, 110.33°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 42.37°N, 108.91°WWasatch — 42.24°N, 110.19°WDeBeque — 40.00°N, 107.90°WDeBeque — 39.20°N, 108.20°WDeBeque — 39.27°N, 108.18°WSables de Bracheux — 49.27°N, 4.15°ESuffolk Pebble Beds — 52.10°N, 1.32°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.15°N, 3.92°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.05°N, 4.00°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.08°N, 4.03°EHanna — 41.80°N, 107.00°WHoback — 42.70°N, 110.10°WBlack Peaks — 29.20°N, 103.20°WBlack Peaks — 29.46°N, 103.15°WLower Variegated Sequence — 43.90°N, 110.80°WMelville — 45.80°N, 109.80°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.33°WLondon Clay — 51.35°N, 1.08°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°EConglomérat de Cernay — 49.27°N, 4.10°EWoolwich — 51.45°N, 0.07°WWoolwich — 51.37°N, 0.09°WPorcupine Hills — 51.00°N, 114.10°WPorcupine Hills — 51.10°N, 114.28°WSentinel Butte — 48.40°N, 103.50°WSentinel Butte — 47.50°N, 101.20°WSlope — 46.70°N, 101.80°WEvanston — 41.58°N, 110.68°WEvanston — 41.80°N, 110.70°WRavenscrag — 49.70°N, 110.10°WRavenscrag — 49.06°N, 102.75°WBullion Creek — 47.03°N, 103.65°W

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The named rock units Plesiadapidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 17 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 93 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Plesiadapidae and its relatives

Paleocene

Where Plesiadapidae and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.

Found in the same rock

1,515 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 272 sites for Plesiadapidae, 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

90 references

Each of the 371 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. 78 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 Plesiadapidae

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

No 3D scan of Plesiadapidae 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 itPlesiadapoidea through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Trouessart 1897