Dichobune

Dichobune is the type genus of the Dichobunoidea, an extinct paraphyletic superfamily consisting of some of the earliest artiodactyls known in the fossil record. It was a primitive artiodactyl genus that was endemic to western Europe and lived from the Middle Eocene to the Early Oligocene. The type species Dichobune leporina was originally described as a species belonging to Anoplotherium beginning in 1804 by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier, who noted its small size. Cuvier assigned it to its own subgenus Dichobune in 1822; later naturalists promoted it to genus rank and observed that it was not close to the Anoplotheriidae as previously thought. Today, there are five valid species within Dichobune.

Dichobune

Uncredited · 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
DichobuninaePBDB
Diet
frugivore, omnivorePBDB, for Dichobunidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Dichobunidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 7.1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 33.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 27.3 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 38 occurrencesEocene — about 33 of 38 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 5 of 38 occurrencesOligocene57–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 1 occurrence41–40 Mya — about 2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 2 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 5 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 5 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 5 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 4 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences41.03 Mya33.9 Mya56.6 Mya26.7 Mya

38 occurrences of Dichobune 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

38 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

9 formations

Bembridge Limestone — 50.67°N, 1.55°WBembridge Limestone — 50.67°N, 1.53°WBorgloon — 50.85°N, 4.82°EHeadon Beds — 50.72°N, 1.59°WPerriere — 44.37°N, 1.73°ELower Headon Beds — 50.67°N, 1.57°WHedi — 34.80°N, 111.91°ELushi — 34.05°N, 111.03°ECreechbarrow Limestone — 50.65°N, 2.12°WBellmunt — 42.17°N, 2.01°E

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The named rock units Dichobune has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 26 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dichobune and its relatives

Eocene

Where Dichobune and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

519 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 23 sites for Dichobune, 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

18 references

Each of the 38 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. 6 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 Dichobune

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itDichobuninae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cuvier 1822