Thylamys

Thylamys is a genus of opossums in the family Didelphidae. The premaxillae are rounded rather than pointed. The females lack a pouch. The females' nipples are arranged in two symmetrical rows on the abdomen. All species but T. macrurus store fat in their tails, although this is not necessarily true for all species in the genus. Fossils belonging to the genus date back to the Miocene, with the oldest specimens being found in the Cerro Azul Formation of Argentina and the Honda Group of Colombia. Genetic studies indicate that the genus may have originated around 14 million years ago.

Thylamys

Yamil Hussein E. · CC BY 3.0 · 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
Also called
fat-tailed mouse opossumPBDB
Sits inside
MarmosiniPBDB
Diet
insectivore, carnivorePBDB, for Marmosinae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Didelphidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Marmosinae

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 13.82 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 14 of 30 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 30 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 7 of 30 occurrencesPleistocene14–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.5–9.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.1–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–8.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.1–7.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences7.6–7.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.2–6.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.7–6.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.2–5.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.7–5.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.3–4.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.8–4.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.3–3.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.8–3.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.9–2.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.4–1.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.9–1.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.4–955 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences955 ka–477 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences477 ka–0 Mya — about 10 occurrences11.63 Mya11.7 ka14.3 Mya0 Mya

30 occurrences of Thylamys 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

30 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

9 formations

Villavieja — 3.28°N, 75.20°WVillavieja — 3.25°N, 75.17°WCerro Azul — 36.70°S, 64.28°WCerro Azul — 37.73°S, 63.53°WCerro Azul — 37.28°S, 64.15°WCerro Azul — 35.92°S, 64.87°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WMonte Hermoso — 38.98°S, 61.82°WEpecuén — 37.22°S, 63.55°WBotucatu — 29.56°S, 51.40°WEpecuen — 37.03°S, 62.49°WLaguna de Tagua Tagua — 34.50°S, 71.17°WIpururo — 6.59°S, 76.31°WSolimões — 8.30°S, 70.44°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Thylamys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Thylamys and its relatives

Miocene

Where Thylamys and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

376 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 23 sites for Thylamys, 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

18 references

Each of the 30 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. 6 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 Thylamys

Credit
Yamil Hussein E.
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Thylamys 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 itMarmosini through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1843