Thylophorops

Thylophorops is an extinct genus of didelphine opossums from the Pliocene of South America. Compared to their close didelphine cousins like the living Philander and Didelphis opossums, Thylophorops displays specialization towards carnivory, and one species, T. lorenzinii, is the largest known opossum of all time, which could imply a macropredatory role.

Thylophorops

Apokryltaros · CC BY-SA 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
DidelphiniPBDB
Diet
omnivore, carnivorePBDB, for Didelphidae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Didelphidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Didelphidae

Time the record covers

At least 200 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 3.8 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 5 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 10 occurrencesPliocene — about 10 of 10 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 10 occurrences5.0–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.8–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.6–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.4–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.9–3.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.8–3.7 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.4–3.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.3–3.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.2–3.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.1–3.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.8 Mya – 3.6 Mya5.5 Mya2.08 Mya

10 occurrences of Thylophorops on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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

10 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

4 formations

Chapadmalal — 38.00°S, 58.00°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WBarranca de los Lobos — 38.12°S, 57.70°WSan Andres — 38.18°S, 57.65°W

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The named rock units Thylophorops has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Thylophorops and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Thylophorops and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

137 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Thylophorops, 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

6 references

Each of the 10 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 content2

Picture of Thylophorops

Credit
Apokryltaros
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Thylophorops sp. · macn:pv:6644

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 itDidelphini through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Reig 1952