Insectivora

The order Insectivora is an obsolete biological grouping within the class of mammals. Some species have now been moved out, leaving the remaining ones in the order Eulipotyphla within the larger clade Laurasiatheria, which makes up one of the basal clades of placental mammals.

Insectivora

John Mittler · Public Domain · 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
Also called
insectivoranPBDB
Sits inside
PlacentaliaPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 72 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 98 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 10 of 98 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 48 of 98 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 7 of 98 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 21 of 98 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 98 occurrencesPleistocene — about 8 of 98 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 3 occurrences63–60 Mya — about 4 occurrences60–57 Mya — about 2 occurrences57–54 Mya — about 8 occurrences54–51 Mya — about 12 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 4 occurrences48–45 Mya — about 3 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 5 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 5 occurrences40–37 Mya — about 5 occurrences37–34 Mya — about 5 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–28 Mya — about 2 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 2 occurrences26–23 Mya — about 2 occurrences23–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–17 Mya — about 5 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 5 occurrences14–11 Mya — about 5 occurrences11–8.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.5–5.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.7–2.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.8–0 Mya — about 9 occurrences72.2 Mya11.7 ka85 Mya0 Mya

98 occurrences of Insectivora on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

98 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

45 formations

Willwood — 44.59°N, 108.86°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.83°WWillwood — 44.52°N, 108.70°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.74°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 40.60°N, 108.10°WFriars — 32.90°N, 117.10°WFort Union — 41.30°N, 107.74°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 43.45°N, 109.16°WBridger — 41.22°N, 109.72°WBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WLegetet — 0.18°S, 35.27°EOlorgesailie — 1.58°S, 36.43°EMiocene Lower Continental Complex — 41.44°N, 2.00°ENorth Horn — 39.10°N, 111.80°WNacimiento — 35.70°N, 107.00°WBlack Peaks — 29.20°N, 103.20°WSlope — 46.70°N, 101.80°WSan Jose — 35.70°N, 107.00°WGolden Valley — 46.90°N, 102.80°W"Wasatch" — 44.00°N, 106.60°WFowkes — 41.31°N, 111.02°W? Tepee Trail — 43.90°N, 110.80°WSantiago — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSweetwater — 32.66°N, 117.03°WDevil's Graveyard — 29.90°N, 104.20°WCypress Hills — 50.20°N, 107.60°WMission Valley — 32.90°N, 117.10°WRenova — 45.00°N, 112.80°WFort Randall — 43.53°N, 99.13°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Insectivora has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 21 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 30 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Insectivora and its relatives

Eocene

Where Insectivora and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,392 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 95 sites for Insectivora, 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

61 references

Each of the 98 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. 49 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 Insectivora

Credit
John Mittler
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Insectivora was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itPlacentalia through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Bowdich 1821)