Dioplotherium

Dioplotherium is an extinct genus of sirenian related to the dugongs, known from Neogene-aged deposits from southern North America.

Dioplotherium

Geekgecko · CC BY 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
DugonginaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Dugongidae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Sirenia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Sirenia

Time the record covers

At least 17 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 3.6 Mya.

Oligocene — about 2 of 20 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 17 of 20 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 20 occurrencesPliocene28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–11 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–9.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.7–8.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.9–8.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.0–7.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.2–6.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.4–5.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.6–4.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23.04 Mya5.333 Mya27.8 Mya3.1 Mya

20 occurrences of Dioplotherium 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

20 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

Pirabas — 0.60°S, 47.31°WPirabas — 0.48°S, 48.17°WPirabas — 0.70°S, 47.51°WPirabas — 1.05°S, 47.16°WStatenville — 30.68°N, 82.71°WStatenville — 30.40°N, 83.00°WMonterey — 33.60°N, 117.80°WMonterey — 33.63°N, 117.71°WParana — 31.38°S, 60.23°WParana — 31.65°S, 60.37°WParachucla — 30.33°N, 82.73°WTopanga — 33.56°N, 117.75°WYsidro — 26.35°N, 112.00°WCarrillo Puerto — 21.18°N, 87.82°WChandler Bridge — 32.93°N, 79.83°W

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The named rock units Dioplotherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dioplotherium and its relatives

Miocene

Where Dioplotherium and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

369 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Dioplotherium, 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

12 references

Each of the 20 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. 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 Dioplotherium

Credit
Geekgecko
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Dioplotherium was found in Sketchfab.

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 itDugonginae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1883