Apterodon

Apterodon is an extinct genus of hyaenodonts from extinct subfamily Apterodontinae within paraphyletic family Hyainailouridae, that lived from the late Eocene to the early Oligocene epoch in Africa and Europe. Including supplementary materials It is closely related to the African Quasiapterodon.

Apterodon

Henry Fairfield Osborn · 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
ApterodontinaePBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Theria
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Eutheria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 6.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 27.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 23.04 Mya.

Eocene — about 9 of 22 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 13 of 22 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 22 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–35 Mya — about 1 occurrence35–35 Mya — about 1 occurrence35–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–33 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33.9 Mya27.3 Mya41.5 Mya22.5 Mya

22 occurrences of Apterodon on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

22 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

6 formations

Jebel Qatrani — 29.50°N, 30.50°EJebel Qatrani — 29.64°N, 30.58°EJebel Qatrani — 29.60°N, 30.88°EJebel Qatrani — 29.45°N, 30.58°ELokone Sandstone — 2.22°N, 35.57°EAlzey — 49.79°N, 8.04°EQasr el Sagha — 29.53°N, 30.53°EBohlen — 51.19°N, 12.46°EQasr el-Sagha — 29.60°N, 30.67°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Apterodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Apterodon and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Apterodon and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

484 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Apterodon, 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

13 references

Each of the 22 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. 1 further reference is 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 content2

Picture of Apterodon

Credit
Henry Fairfield Osborn
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Apterodon sp. · dpc:8277

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 itApterodontinae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fischer 1880