Apataelurus

Apataelurus is an extinct genus of saber-toothed placental mammals from the extinct family Oxyaenidae, that lived in North America and East Asia during the Middle Eocene, 45-42 million years ago. This genus was defined by teeth that were well-adapted to a carnivorous diet. A distinct feature described was a long upper canine tooth that resembled a saber tooth. There are two species currently described: Apataelurus kayi, the type species, and Apataelurus pishigouensis, discovered in 1986.

Apataelurus

Sydney Prentice (1873-1943) ( [2] ): drawing), William Berryman Scott (1858-1947): scientific · Public Domain · 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
MachaeroidinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Oxyaenidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Oxyaenidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 1.9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 39.7 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 45.9 Mya to 27.3 Mya.

Eocene — about 3 of 4 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesOligocene46–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39.7 Mya – 37.71 Mya46.4 Mya26.8 Mya

4 occurrences of Apataelurus 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

4 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

3 formations

Uinta — 40.20°N, 109.90°WSantiago — 33.19°N, 117.32°WHetaoyuan — 33.00°N, 111.42°E

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

Apataelurus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Apataelurus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

144 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Apataelurus, 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 4 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 Apataelurus

Credit
Sydney Prentice (1873-1943) ( [2] ): drawing), William Berryman Scott (1858-1947): scientific
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Apataelurus 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 itMachaeroidinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Scott 1937