Samotherium

Samotherium is an extinct genus belonging to the family Giraffidae from the Miocene and Pliocene of Eurasia and Africa. Samotherium had two ossicones on its head and possessed long legs. The ossicones usually pointed upward, and were curved backwards, with males having larger, more curved ossicones, though in the Chinese species, S. sinense, the straight ossicones point laterally, not upwards. The genus is closely related to Shansitherium. Fossil evidence suggests that Samotherium had a rounded muzzle, which would suggest a grazing lifestyle and a habitat composed of grassland. One common predator of this animal was the Amphimachairodus.

Samotherium

© The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London · CC BY 4.0 · 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
GiraffidaePBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Giraffidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At least 8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 46 occurrencesMiocene — about 42 of 46 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 46 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 46 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–9.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.9–9.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.2–8.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences8.5–7.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 6 occurrences7.1–6.4 Mya — about 7 occurrences6.4–5.7 Mya — about 7 occurrences5.7–4.9 Mya — about 4 occurrences4.9–4.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.2–3.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.5–2.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.8–2.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11.63 Mya3.6 Mya23.5 Mya2.1 Mya

46 occurrences of Samotherium on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

46 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

13 formations

Mytilinii — 37.75°N, 26.89°EMytilinii — 37.74°N, 26.89°EMuluk — 30.42°N, 30.25°EUpper Koru Series — 0.23°S, 35.34°EGusar suite — 39.50°N, 67.60°EBou Hanifia — 35.30°N, 0.10°WAgha Jari — 34.48°N, 44.63°EBahe — 33.50°N, 109.50°EYatagan — 37.34°N, 28.24°ELefkon — 41.17°N, 23.50°EGar El Muluk — 30.37°N, 30.32°ENakali — 1.18°N, 36.37°EChu — 42.20°N, 75.41°EBeyağaç — 37.27°N, 28.97°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Samotherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 28 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Samotherium and its relatives

Miocene

Where Samotherium and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

525 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 43 sites for Samotherium, 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

31 references

Each of the 46 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. 19 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 Samotherium

Credit
© The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itGiraffidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Forsyth Major 1888