Shamolagus

Shamolagus is an extinct genus of lagomorphs that lived in present-day Mongolia during the Upper Eocene. It contains two species, both of which are now extinct: Shamolagus grangeri and S. medius. Both of the species and the genus itself were named by paleontologist J. J. Burke in 1941 based on fossils collected in 1925 and 1928. In the same paper, Burke grouped Shamolagus with Mytonolagus and another new genus Gobiolagus in the newly-named subfamily Mytonolaginae in the rabbit family Leporidae. He further stated that Desmatolagus was descended from Shamolagus despite placing it in a separate subfamily. Further fossils in the form of isolated teeth from central China were assigned by Tong to Shamolagus sp. and Shamolagus cf. medius in 1997.

Shamolagus

Jonathan Chen · 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
LeporidaePBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Leporidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Leporidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 11 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 48.07 Mya and 37.71 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 5 of 5 occurrencesEocene48–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48.6 Mya37.2 Mya

5 occurrences of Shamolagus 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

5 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

2 formations

Shara Murum — 42.04°N, 111.53°EUlan Shireh — 44.13°N, 103.56°E

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The named rock units Shamolagus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Shamolagus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Shamolagus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

62 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Shamolagus, 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

4 references

Each of the 5 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. 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 Shamolagus

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Shamolagus 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 itLeporidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Burke 1941