Amphimeryx

Amphimeryx is an extinct genus of small mammals with slightly deer-like forms belonging to the Amphimerycidae, classified within the order Artiodactyla. It was endemic to western Europe and lived from the Late Eocene to the Early Oligocene, about 37 to 32.5 million years ago. The taxonomic history of the artiodactyl genus extends back to 1804 when dental fossils of the type species A. murinus were first recognized by the French palaeontologist Georges Cuvier, who gave the species its current scientific name in 1822. It was first assigned by early naturalists to two other artiodactyl genera, Anoplotherium and Dichobune. In 1848, the French palaeontologist Auguste Pomel recognized that the dentition of A. murinus was roughly similar to those of ruminants and therefore designated to its own genus Amphimeryx, the name meaning "near ruminant". Two other species named in later studies, A. collotarsus and A. riparius, are purported, although their validities are uncertain.

Amphimeryx

DagdaMor · 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
AmphimerycidaePBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Artiodactyla
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Artiodactyla
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At most 11 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 37.71 Mya and 27.3 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 16 of 18 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 18 occurrencesOligocene38–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–37 Mya — about 2 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 2 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 2 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 2 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38.2 Mya26.8 Mya

18 occurrences of Amphimeryx 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

18 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.

Amphimeryx and its relatives

Eocene

Where Amphimeryx and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

138 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Amphimeryx, 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 18 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Amphimeryx

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

No 3D scan of Amphimeryx 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 itAmphimerycidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Pictet 1853