Cimolesta

Cimolesta is an extinct order of non-placental, eutherian mammals. Cimolestans had a wide variety of body shapes, dentition and lifestyles, though the majority of them were small to medium-sized general mammals that bore superficial resemblances to rodents, lagomorphs, mustelids, and marsupials.

Cimolesta

Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 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
EutheriaPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Theria
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Eutheria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 44 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 27.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 18.5 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 67 of 1765 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 595 of 1765 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 1094 of 1765 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 8 of 1765 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 1 of 1765 occurrencesMiocene85–83 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 1 occurrence80–78 Mya — about 1 occurrence78–76 Mya — about 1 occurrence76–74 Mya — about 1 occurrence74–71 Mya — about 9 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 22 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 22 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 75 occurrences65–62 Mya — about 98 occurrences62–60 Mya — about 102 occurrences60–58 Mya — about 134 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 270 occurrences56–53 Mya — about 392 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 385 occurrences51–49 Mya — about 74 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 55 occurrences47–44 Mya — about 25 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 17 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 21 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 18 occurrences38–35 Mya — about 18 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 13 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 3 occurrences31–28 Mya — about 2 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences22–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences72.2 Mya27.3 Mya85 Mya17 Mya

1,765 occurrences of Cimolesta 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

1,765 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

144 formations

Willwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 43.95°N, 107.57°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.64°N, 108.43°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 109.93°WWillwood — 44.59°N, 108.86°WWillwood — 44.42°N, 108.69°WWillwood — 44.44°N, 108.63°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.67°WWillwood — 44.56°N, 108.70°WWillwood — 44.59°N, 108.62°WWillwood — 44.49°N, 108.54°WWillwood — 44.53°N, 108.43°WWillwood — 44.49°N, 108.81°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.54°WWillwood — 44.60°N, 108.32°WWillwood — 44.53°N, 108.32°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.72°WWillwood — 44.68°N, 108.76°WWillwood — 44.52°N, 108.57°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.90°WWillwood — 44.64°N, 108.76°WWillwood — 44.41°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.33°N, 108.77°WWillwood — 44.35°N, 108.75°WWillwood — 44.76°N, 108.88°WWillwood — 44.16°N, 107.87°WWillwood — 44.15°N, 107.87°WFort Union — 47.80°N, 106.10°WFort Union — 47.60°N, 107.00°WFort Union — 44.30°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 41.70°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 41.30°N, 107.74°WFort Union — 44.50°N, 108.00°WFort Union — 43.85°N, 108.35°WFort Union — 45.80°N, 109.80°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 46.59°N, 101.74°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 103.90°WFort Union — 45.80°N, 110.50°WFort Union — 44.72°N, 108.38°WFort Union — 44.68°N, 108.32°WFort Union — 45.20°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 43.20°N, 107.10°WFort Union — 45.10°N, 106.90°WFort Union — 45.40°N, 105.60°WFort Union — 44.91°N, 108.93°WFort Union — 43.45°N, 109.16°WFort Union — 41.92°N, 108.56°WFort Union — 46.43°N, 103.93°WFort Union — 44.16°N, 107.87°WFort Union — 47.50°N, 107.20°WFort Union — 44.71°N, 108.56°WFort Union — 44.73°N, 108.47°WFort Union — 44.85°N, 108.78°WFort Union — 44.91°N, 109.01°WFort Union — 44.96°N, 109.01°WFort Union — 44.85°N, 108.74°WFort Union — 47.60°N, 106.20°WFort Union — 41.68°N, 107.52°WFort Union — 47.50°N, 106.37°WFort Union — 47.58°N, 107.05°WFort Union — 41.83°N, 108.60°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 110.70°WWasatch — 41.27°N, 110.33°WWasatch — 43.25°N, 110.42°WWasatch — 40.60°N, 108.10°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 107.00°WWasatch — 42.70°N, 110.10°WWasatch — 41.20°N, 110.50°WWasatch — 40.00°N, 107.90°WWasatch — 41.75°N, 108.00°WWasatch — 42.37°N, 108.91°WWasatch — 42.24°N, 110.19°WWasatch — 41.86°N, 110.78°WWasatch — 41.83°N, 110.75°WDeBeque — 40.00°N, 107.90°WDeBeque — 39.20°N, 108.20°WDeBeque — 39.27°N, 108.18°WDeBeque — 39.70°N, 107.60°WWind River — 44.00°N, 106.60°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWind River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WWind River — 41.80°N, 107.00°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.33°WBridger — 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 — 41.40°N, 110.33°WBridger — 41.08°N, 110.10°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.65°N, 106.20°WHell Creek — 47.68°N, 106.43°WHell Creek — 47.62°N, 106.18°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 106.27°WHell Creek — 47.83°N, 106.18°WHell Creek — 45.76°N, 104.92°WHell Creek — 45.66°N, 105.08°WPaskapoo — 51.90°N, 113.30°WPaskapoo — 53.23°N, 114.70°WPaskapoo — 52.40°N, 113.80°WPaskapoo — 52.30°N, 113.80°WPaskapoo — 51.18°N, 114.43°WPaskapoo — 52.00°N, 114.30°WPaskapoo — 51.50°N, 112.30°WPaskapoo — 52.20°N, 113.60°WPaskapoo — 52.40°N, 116.10°WPaskapoo — 54.80°N, 115.46°WPaskapoo — 51.00°N, 114.10°WSan Jose — 36.50°N, 107.00°WSan Jose — 35.70°N, 107.00°WLance — 43.18°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 43.80°N, 104.62°WLance — 43.00°N, 104.50°WNacimiento — 36.31°N, 108.00°WNacimiento — 36.30°N, 108.20°WNacimiento — 35.70°N, 107.00°WNacimiento — 36.18°N, 107.58°WNacimiento — 36.57°N, 107.97°WNacimiento — 36.27°N, 107.76°WShanghu — 25.12°N, 114.30°EShanghu — 25.29°N, 114.50°EShanghu — 25.21°N, 114.34°EShanghu — 25.08°N, 114.17°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.05°N, 4.00°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.08°N, 4.03°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.15°N, 3.92°ELignites de Soissonais — 43.62°N, 5.75°EHuerfano — 37.80°N, 105.10°W"Wasatch" — 40.20°N, 109.90°W"Wasatch" — 44.00°N, 106.60°W"Wasatch" — 43.90°N, 105.70°WCambay Shale — 21.33°N, 72.98°ECambay Shale — 21.40°N, 73.08°ECambay Shale — 21.35°N, 73.07°EChadron — 46.10°N, 103.30°WChadron — 43.30°N, 102.50°WChadron — 42.40°N, 103.80°WChadron — 42.90°N, 103.63°WChadron — 42.81°N, 103.59°WNaran Bulak — 43.47°N, 100.38°ENaran Bulak — 44.62°N, 106.18°ENaran Bulak — 43.45°N, 101.44°ENaran Bulak — 43.46°N, 101.48°ENongshan — 25.12°N, 114.30°ENongshan — 25.15°N, 114.40°ENongshan — 25.29°N, 114.50°ENongshan — 25.08°N, 114.17°ENongshan — 25.37°N, 114.52°EWanghudun — 30.76°N, 116.55°EWanghudun — 30.51°N, 116.58°EWanghudun — 30.65°N, 116.57°EWanghudun — 30.68°N, 116.62°EZaoshi — 26.70°N, 113.50°EScollard — 51.91°N, 112.97°WScollard — 51.80°N, 113.00°WRavenscrag — 49.50°N, 109.20°WRavenscrag — 49.06°N, 102.75°WAycross — 43.70°N, 108.70°WAycross — 43.20°N, 108.20°WAycross — 44.30°N, 109.00°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cimolesta has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 120 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 164 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cimolesta and its relatives

Eocene

Where Cimolesta and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,104 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1,109 sites for Cimolesta, 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

347 references

Each of the 1,765 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. 335 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 content1

Picture of Cimolesta

Credit
Didier Descouens
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
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 itEutheria through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. McKenna 1975