Boreostemma

Boreostemma is an extinct genus of glyptodonts from northern South America. Fossils assigned to the genus were first described as belonging to Asterostemma from southern South America, but have been placed in the new genus Boreostemma by Carlini et al. in 2008. The type species is B. pliocena. Fossils of Boreostemma have been found in the Honda Group of Colombia, in Peru and Venezuela.

Boreostemma

Tisquesusa · CC BY 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
GlyptodontinaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Xenarthra
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Xenarthra
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Miocene — about 31 of 32 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 32 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 32 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 5 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 5 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 5 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 5 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 5 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.4–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.4–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.4–5.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.0–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.5–3.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11.63 Mya3.6 Mya16.5 Mya2.1 Mya

32 occurrences of Boreostemma on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

32 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

Villavieja — 3.23°N, 75.18°WVillavieja — 3.28°N, 75.18°WVillavieja — 3.22°N, 75.14°WLa Victoria — 3.30°N, 75.15°WLa Victoria — 3.25°N, 75.13°WLa Victoria — 3.20°N, 75.20°WLa Victoria — 3.39°N, 75.16°WIpururo — 10.63°S, 73.92°WIpururo — 10.40°S, 73.52°WIpururo — 10.45°S, 73.55°WCodore — 11.26°N, 70.29°WSanta Ines — 9.04°N, 64.79°WSan Gregorio — 11.30°N, 70.24°W

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The named rock units Boreostemma has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Boreostemma and its relatives

Miocene

Where Boreostemma and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

81 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Boreostemma, 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 32 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 Boreostemma

Credit
Tisquesusa
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Boreostemma 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 itGlyptodontinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Carlini et al. 2008