Protictis

Protictis is an extinct paraphyletic genus of placental mammals from extinct subfamily Didymictinae within extinct family Viverravidae, that lived in North America from early Paleocene to middle Eocene.

Protictis

M. Fox · 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
ViverravidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Viverravidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Viverravidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 45.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 39.7 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 69 occurrencesPaleocene — about 67 of 69 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 2 of 69 occurrencesEocene67–66 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences65–64 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences64–63 Mya — about 9 occurrences63–62 Mya — about 16 occurrences62–61 Mya — about 16 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 8 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 6 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 6 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 6 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences61.66 Mya45.9 Mya66.5 Mya39.2 Mya

69 occurrences of Protictis 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

69 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

15 formations

Fort Union — 41.30°N, 107.74°WFort Union — 43.85°N, 108.35°WFort Union — 45.80°N, 109.80°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 41.70°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.72°N, 108.38°WFort Union — 43.70°N, 108.70°WFort Union — 45.40°N, 105.60°WFort Union — 43.45°N, 109.16°WFort Union — 39.27°N, 108.18°WNacimiento — 35.70°N, 107.00°WNacimiento — 36.30°N, 108.20°WNacimiento — 36.57°N, 107.97°WNacimiento — 36.18°N, 107.58°WNacimiento — 36.27°N, 107.76°W"Fort Union" (= Lebo) — 45.80°N, 109.80°W"Fort Union" (= Lebo) — 46.20°N, 109.90°WPaskapoo — 52.35°N, 113.77°WPaskapoo — 51.20°N, 112.50°WPaskapoo — 51.00°N, 114.10°WPaskapoo — 53.23°N, 114.70°WPorcupine Hills — 51.00°N, 114.10°WPorcupine Hills — 51.10°N, 114.28°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 110.70°WGoler — 35.50°N, 117.77°WBlack Peaks — 29.20°N, 103.20°WNorth Horn — 39.18°N, 111.27°WSlope — 46.70°N, 101.80°WBullion Creek — 47.03°N, 103.65°WMelville — 45.80°N, 109.80°WTepee Trail — 43.20°N, 108.20°WWillwood — 44.66°N, 108.79°WRavenscrag — 49.06°N, 102.75°W

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The named rock units Protictis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Protictis and its relatives

Paleocene

Where Protictis and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.

Found in the same rock

507 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 55 sites for Protictis, 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

30 references

Each of the 69 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. 18 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 Protictis

Credit
M. Fox
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Protictis was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itViverravidae through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Matthew 1937)