Proteidae

The family Proteidae is a group of aquatic salamanders found today in the Balkan Peninsula and North America. The range of the genus Necturus runs from southern central Canada, through the midwestern United States, east to North Carolina and south to Georgia and Mississippi. The range of the olm, the only extant member of the genus Proteus, is limited to the Western Balkans. The fossil record of the family extends back to the Late Cretaceous, with Paranecturus being known from the Maastrichtian of North America, and Bishara from the Santonian-Campanian of Central Asia.

Proteidae

National Park Service · Public Domain · 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
Also called
mudpuppyPBDB
Sits inside
UrodelaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 65 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Late Cretaceous — about 8 of 37 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 37 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 37 occurrencesOligocene — about 3 of 37 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 23 of 37 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 37 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 37 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 1 occurrence71–69 Mya — about 3 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 3 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences59–56 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences32–29 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 5 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 3 occurrences12–9.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences9.8–7.4 Mya — about 4 occurrences7.4–4.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.9–2.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.5–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence66 Mya129 ka74 Mya0 Mya

37 occurrences of Proteidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

37 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

11 formations

Hell Creek — 47.27°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 106.92°WUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.44°N, 11.04°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.66°N, 10.23°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.09°N, 10.03°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.16°N, 10.11°EVille — 50.90°N, 6.45°EAral — 46.80°N, 60.58°EAral — 50.20°N, 66.80°EDâncu — 46.81°N, 23.51°EGaverdovsky — 44.61°N, 40.03°EBrackwater Molasse — 48.48°N, 10.10°ERavenscrag — 49.06°N, 102.75°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WEdelény — 48.39°N, 20.64°EReuver clay — 50.90°N, 6.45°E

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The named rock units Proteidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Proteidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Proteidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

829 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 36 sites for Proteidae, 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

21 references

Each of the 37 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. 9 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 Proteidae

Credit
National Park Service
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Proteidae 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 itUrodela through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hogg 1838