Desmostylus hesperus

Desmostylus hesperus

Dmitry Bogdanov · CC BY 3.0 · via Wikidata/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
DesmostylusPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Desmostylia
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Desmostylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Desmostylia
Environment
coastalPBDB, for Desmostylia

Time the record covers

At least 8.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 20.45 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 29.5 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 55 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 54 of 55 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 55 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 55 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 1 occurrence22–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 7 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 7 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 7 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 7 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 4 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 2 occurrences10–9.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.5–8.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.6–7.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.6–6.7 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences6.7–5.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.8–4.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.8–3.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.9–3.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.0–2.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20.45 Mya11.63 Mya30 Mya2 Mya

55 occurrences of Desmostylus hesperus 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

55 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

18 formations

Temblor — 35.30°N, 118.50°WTemblor — 35.63°N, 119.69°WTemblor — 35.36°N, 120.22°WTemblor — 35.37°N, 119.02°WTemblor — 36.50°N, 120.32°WTemblor — 36.33°N, 120.36°WTemblor — 33.75°N, 117.87°WTemblor — 36.56°N, 120.56°WTemblor — 36.19°N, 120.40°WTemblor — 36.06°N, 120.61°WTemblor — 35.91°N, 120.14°WTemblor — 35.72°N, 119.98°WTemblor — 36.00°N, 120.51°WTemblor — 36.29°N, 120.33°WBriones — 37.56°N, 121.92°WBriones — 37.45°N, 121.83°WBriones — 37.94°N, 122.26°WBriones — 38.00°N, 122.06°WBriones — 37.68°N, 121.90°WBriones — 37.32°N, 121.88°WBriones — 39.70°N, 123.27°WBriones — 37.90°N, 122.11°WBriones — 37.90°N, 122.03°WBriones — 37.38°N, 121.78°WBriones — 37.57°N, 121.81°WMonterey — 33.78°N, 118.39°WMonterey — 35.27°N, 120.67°WMonterey — 34.62°N, 120.13°WMonterey — 35.28°N, 120.53°WMonterey — 36.62°N, 121.90°WAstoria — 44.70°N, 124.06°WAstoria — 44.77°N, 124.08°WVaqueros — 34.89°N, 119.75°WVaqueros — 36.17°N, 120.67°WVaqueros — 35.09°N, 119.81°WBranch Canyon — 34.89°N, 119.62°WBranch Canyon — 34.90°N, 119.69°WTopanga — 33.56°N, 117.75°WTopanga — 33.81°N, 117.79°WEtolon — 57.43°N, 157.01°EEtolon — 57.74°N, 156.90°EClallam — 48.26°N, 124.25°WUchiboro — 49.70°N, 143.00°ETachikaraushinai — 44.72°N, 142.61°ENye — 44.65°N, 124.05°WSkooner Gulch — 38.87°N, 123.65°WYsidro — 26.23°N, 112.50°WSanta Margarita — 37.05°N, 122.04°WHacchorei — 46.68°N, 141.86°EKadonosawa — 39.35°N, 140.77°ERosarito Beach — 32.12°N, 116.80°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Desmostylus hesperus 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.

Desmostylus hesperus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Desmostylus hesperus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

196 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 52 sites for Desmostylus hesperus, 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

19 references

Each of the 55 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. 7 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 Desmostylus hesperus

Credit
Dmitry Bogdanov
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itDesmostylus through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Marsh 1888