Brontotheriidae

Brontotheres, also called titanotheres, are an extinct group of perissodactyl mammals belonging to the family Brontotheriidae. Brontotheres are traditionally interpreted as relatives of horses, though high-level perissodactyl relationships are not well understood. Brontotheres lived during the Eocene epoch and their fossils have mainly been found in Asia and North America, with some fossils also found in Eastern Europe. Early brontotheres were small animals, but later brontotheres grew to become the largest land mammals of the Eocene, and the largest land mammals to have evolved up until their time.

Brontotheriidae

Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857–1935) · 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
Also called
brontotherePBDB
Sits inside
PerissodactylaPBDB
Diet
browserPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 51.1 Mya to 27.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 23.04 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 578 occurrencesEocene — about 573 of 578 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 5 of 578 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 578 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 10 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 24 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 24 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 24 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 25 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 26 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 26 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 28 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 30 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 28 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 26 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 26 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 26 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 28 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 32 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 31 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 29 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 42 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 46 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 43 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51.1 Mya27.3 Mya56.7 Mya22.4 Mya

578 occurrences of Brontotheriidae 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

578 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

91 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 — 41.77°N, 110.33°WBridger — 41.13°N, 110.13°WBridger — 42.37°N, 108.91°WBridger — 41.37°N, 109.82°WUinta — 40.07°N, 109.28°WUinta — 40.15°N, 109.62°WUinta — 40.17°N, 109.93°WChadron — 43.60°N, 102.45°WChadron — 43.30°N, 102.50°WChadron — 43.92°N, 102.58°WChadron — 45.50°N, 102.50°WChadron — 42.40°N, 103.80°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.10°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.40°WChadron — 42.90°N, 105.20°WChadron — 42.00°N, 104.20°WChadron — 45.47°N, 112.62°WChadron — 46.10°N, 103.30°WChadron — 45.50°N, 103.10°WChadron — 43.75°N, 103.20°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWind River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.33°WWasatch — 42.70°N, 110.10°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 107.00°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 110.70°WWasatch — 42.07°N, 109.10°WWasatch — 41.75°N, 108.00°WWasatch — 41.20°N, 110.50°WWasatch — 42.37°N, 108.91°WWasatch — 42.98°N, 110.12°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WWhite River — 40.80°N, 103.10°WWhite River — 40.97°N, 106.22°WPondaung — 21.70°N, 94.76°EPondaung — 21.62°N, 94.85°EPondaung — 21.72°N, 94.68°EPondaung — 21.77°N, 94.60°EPondaung — 21.95°N, 94.57°EPondaung — 21.90°N, 94.57°EPondaung — 21.97°N, 94.47°EPondaung — 21.75°N, 94.68°EHuerfano — 37.80°N, 105.10°WHuerfano — 37.80°N, 105.20°WDeBeque — 39.70°N, 107.60°WFriars — 32.90°N, 117.10°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 44.33°N, 108.77°WWashakie — 41.70°N, 109.00°WWashakie — 40.60°N, 108.10°WWashakie — 41.32°N, 108.38°WSantiago — 33.10°N, 117.29°WSantiago — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSantiago — 33.15°N, 117.31°WGalisteo — 35.50°N, 106.20°WAycross — 43.20°N, 108.20°WAycross — 43.70°N, 108.70°WCypress Hills — 50.20°N, 107.60°WCypress Hills — 50.00°N, 107.90°WCypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WCypress Hills — 49.80°N, 109.00°WShara Murum — 42.04°N, 111.53°EShara Murum — 42.63°N, 111.35°EGreen River — 41.80°N, 110.70°WGreen River — 40.24°N, 109.13°WGreen River — 41.70°N, 109.00°WGreen River — 42.45°N, 108.60°WGreen River — 39.48°N, 111.50°WKuldana — 33.78°N, 72.68°EKuldana — 33.62°N, 71.92°EKuldana — 33.58°N, 72.22°EDevil's Graveyard — 29.20°N, 103.20°WDevil's Graveyard — 29.90°N, 104.20°WRenova — 45.20°N, 112.00°WRenova — 45.00°N, 112.80°WRenova — 46.00°N, 112.00°WRenova — 45.90°N, 112.25°WTepee Trail — 43.70°N, 108.70°WSespe — 34.30°N, 119.00°WSespe — 34.56°N, 119.25°WBaca — 34.00°N, 107.00°WBaca — 34.60°N, 108.40°WBaca — 33.50°N, 108.80°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Brontotheriidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 67 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 50 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Brontotheriidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Brontotheriidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

969 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 467 sites for Brontotheriidae, and this reads 240 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

201 references

Each of the 578 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. 189 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 content2

Picture of Brontotheriidae

Credit
Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857–1935)
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itPerissodactyla through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Marsh 1873