Carpolestes

Carpolestes is a genus of extinct primate-like mammals from the late Paleocene of North America. It first existed around 58 million years ago. The three species of Carpolestes appear to form a lineage, with the earliest occurring species, C. dubius, ancestral to the type species, C. nigridens, which, in turn, was ancestral to the most recently occurring species, C. simpsoni.

Carpolestes

Sisyphos23 · 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
CarpolestinaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Plesiadapoidea
Life habit
arborealPBDB, for Plesiadapoidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Plesiadapoidea

Time the record covers

At least 1.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 57.5 Mya to 56 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 60.9 Mya to 48.07 Mya.

Paleocene — about 46 of 47 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 1 of 47 occurrencesEocene61–60 Mya — about 2 occurrences60–60 Mya — about 3 occurrences60–60 Mya — about 3 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 3 occurrences59–59 Mya — about 3 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 3 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 3 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 6 occurrences57–57 Mya — about 8 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 8 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 6 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57.5 Mya – 56 Mya61.4 Mya47.6 Mya

47 occurrences of Carpolestes on record, most of them in the Paleocene. 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

47 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

4 formations

Fort Union — 41.70°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.89°N, 108.93°WFort Union — 44.30°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 41.92°N, 108.56°WFort Union — 45.20°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.50°N, 108.00°WFort Union — 44.72°N, 108.62°WFort Union — 44.68°N, 108.34°WFort Union — 41.77°N, 108.61°WFort Union — 44.96°N, 109.01°WFort Union — 44.92°N, 108.97°WWillwood — 44.78°N, 108.97°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 41.27°N, 110.33°WLower Variegated Sequence — 43.90°N, 110.80°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Carpolestes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Carpolestes and its relatives

Paleocene

Where Carpolestes and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.

Found in the same rock

236 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 45 sites for Carpolestes, 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

15 references

Each of the 47 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. 3 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 Carpolestes

Credit
Sisyphos23
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Carpolestes nigridens · UMMP:VP:71004

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 itCarpolestinae through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Simpson 1928