Zhangheotherium quinquecuspidens

Zhangheotherium is an extinct genus of "symmetrodont" mammal from the Early Cretaceous of China. A single species is known, Zhangheotherium quinquecuspidens from Jianshangou Beds of the Yixian Formation. Zhangheotherium was the first "symmetrodont" known from a nearly complete skeleton, expanding knowledge of the group beyond isolated teeth and jaws. The genus name honors Zhang He, who collected the holotype fossil from Liaoning Province prior to its 1997 description. The specific name is Latin for "five-cusped teeth".

Zhangheotherium quinquecuspidens

Laikayiu · CC BY-SA 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
Sits inside
ZhangheotheriumPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Mammaliaformes
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Zhangheotherium
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

Time the record covers

At most 6.2 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 125.77 Mya and 119.57 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 2 of 2 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous126–126 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences126–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences124–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences124–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences124–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences124–123 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences123–123 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences123–123 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences123–123 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences123–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121–120 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences120–120 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences120–120 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences120–120 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences126.3 Mya119.1 Mya

2 occurrences of Zhangheotherium quinquecuspidens on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

2 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

1 formation

Yixian — 41.68°N, 120.99°EYixian — 41.60°N, 120.87°E

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The named rock units Zhangheotherium quinquecuspidens has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Zhangheotherium quinquecuspidens and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Zhangheotherium quinquecuspidens and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

3 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Zhangheotherium quinquecuspidens, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

2 references

Each of the 2 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 Zhangheotherium quinquecuspidens

Credit
Laikayiu
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Zhangheotherium quinquecuspidens 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 itZhangheotherium through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hu et al. 1997