Archaeonycteridae

Archaeonycteridae is a family of extinct bats. It was originally erected by the Swiss naturalist Pierre Revilliod as Archaeonycterididae to hold the genus Archaeonycteris. It was formerly classified under the superfamily Icaronycteroidea (disused) by Kurten and Anderson in 1980. In 2007, the spelling was corrected to Archaeonycteridae and it was reclassified to the unranked clade Microchiropteramorpha by Smith et al.. The family Palaeochiropterygidae was also merged into Archaeonycteridae by Kurten and Anderson, but modern authorities specializing in bat fossils maintain the distinction between the two.

Archaeonycteridae

Ghedoghedo · 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
MicrochiropteramorphaPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Chiroptera
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Chiroptera
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Chiroptera

Time the record covers

At least 10 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 27.3 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 14 occurrencesEocene — about 13 of 14 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 14 occurrencesOligocene57–56 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48.07 Mya37.71 Mya56.6 Mya26.7 Mya

14 occurrences of Archaeonycteridae 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

14 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

5 formations

Lignites de Soissonais — 49.05°N, 4.00°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.08°N, 4.03°ELignites de Soissonais — 43.62°N, 5.75°ECambay Shale — 21.40°N, 73.08°EMessel — 49.93°N, 8.73°ESilveirinha — 40.01°N, 8.82°WHetaoyuan — 33.00°N, 111.42°E

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The named rock units Archaeonycteridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Archaeonycteridae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Archaeonycteridae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

413 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Archaeonycteridae, 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

9 references

Each of the 14 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 Archaeonycteridae

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
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 itMicrochiropteramorpha through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Revilliod 1917