Apatemys

Apatemys is a member of the family Apatemyidae, an extinct group of small and insectivorous placental mammals that lived in the Paleogene of North America, India, and Europe. While the number of genera and species is less agreed upon, it has been determined that two apatemyid genera, Apatemys and Sinclairella, existed sequentially during the Eocene in North America. The genus Apatemys, living as far back as 50.3 million years ago (mya), existed through part of the Wasatchian and persisted through the Duchesnean, and Sinclairella followed, existing from the Duchesnean through the Arikareean. Examinations of specimens belonging to the genus Apatemys suggest adaptations characteristic of arboreal mammals.

Apatemys

via iDigBio · CC0 · via iDigBio. 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
ApatemyidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Apatemyidae
Life habit
arborealPBDB, for Apatemyidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Apatemyidae

Time the record covers

At least 14 million years on record.

The record covers at least 51.1 Mya to 37 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 31.8 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 109 occurrencesEocene — about 109 of 109 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 109 occurrencesOligocene57–56 Mya — about 3 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 7 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 7 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 7 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 7 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 7 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 7 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 8 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 8 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 8 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 6 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 6 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 5 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 3 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 3 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 3 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 3 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 3 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 3 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 3 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51.1 Mya37 Mya56.5 Mya31.3 Mya

109 occurrences of Apatemys 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

109 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

27 formations

Bridger — 41.70°N, 109.00°WBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WBridger — 42.70°N, 110.10°WBridger — 42.42°N, 109.35°WBridger — 41.80°N, 110.70°WBridger — 41.08°N, 110.10°WWillwood — 43.95°N, 107.57°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.51°N, 108.68°WWillwood — 44.52°N, 108.65°WWillwood — 44.66°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.40°N, 108.72°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 42.70°N, 110.10°WWasatch — 42.37°N, 108.91°WWasatch — 41.82°N, 110.71°WWind River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.33°WLignites de Soissonais — 49.05°N, 4.00°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.08°N, 4.03°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.15°N, 3.92°ELignites de Soissonais — 43.62°N, 5.75°EFriars — 32.90°N, 117.10°WCypress Hills — 50.20°N, 107.60°WCypress Hills — 50.00°N, 107.90°WCypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WGreen River — 40.20°N, 109.90°WWagon Bed ("Tepee Trail") — 43.20°N, 107.10°WSantiago — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSantiago — 33.19°N, 117.32°WChadron — 42.40°N, 103.80°WChadron — 42.90°N, 103.63°WChadron — 42.75°N, 103.65°WAycross — 43.70°N, 108.70°WWashakie — 41.70°N, 109.00°WUinta — 40.20°N, 109.90°WUinta — 40.08°N, 109.27°WTienen — 50.82°N, 5.10°ESan Jose — 36.50°N, 107.00°WTuscahoma — 32.36°N, 88.70°W"Wasatch" — 44.00°N, 106.60°W"Sheep Pass" — 39.00°N, 114.10°WFowkes — 41.31°N, 111.02°WTepee Trail — 43.20°N, 108.20°WMission Valley — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSespe — 34.30°N, 119.00°WSilveirinha — 40.01°N, 8.82°W

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The named rock units Apatemys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed.

Apatemys and its relatives

Eocene

Where Apatemys and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,336 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 99 sites for Apatemys, 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

46 references

Each of the 109 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. 34 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 Apatemys

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itApatemyidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Marsh 1872