Eobasileus cornutus

Eobasileus ("dawn-king") is a genus of dinoceratan mammal in the family Uintatheriidae. One species is currently considered valid, E. cornutus, though it has been suggested that the closely related Tetheopsis may also belong to this genus. The first specimen of Eobasileus, consisting of a skull, several vertebrae, and bones associated with the limbs, was collected from Haystack Mountain, from strata belonging to the Washakie Formation. The species became the subject of various letters written by Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, and their disagreements over its taxonomy and anatomy contributed to the beginning of the Bone Wars.

Eobasileus cornutus

Multituberculate15 · CC0 · 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
EobasileusPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Dinocerata
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Dinocerata
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

Time the record covers

At most 6.2 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 45.9 Mya and 39.7 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 5 of 5 occurrencesEocene46–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46.4 Mya39.2 Mya

5 occurrences of Eobasileus cornutus 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

5 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

2 formations

Uinta — 40.20°N, 109.90°WWashakie — 40.60°N, 108.10°WWashakie — 41.70°N, 109.00°W

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The named rock units Eobasileus cornutus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Eobasileus cornutus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Eobasileus cornutus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

82 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Eobasileus cornutus, 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

4 references

Each of the 5 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 Eobasileus cornutus

Credit
Multituberculate15
Licence
CC0
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 itEobasileus through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Cope 1872)