Kuehneotheriidae

Kuehneotheriidae is an extinct family of mammaliaforms traditionally placed within 'Symmetrodonta', though now generally considered more basal than true symmetrodonts. All members of Kuehneotheriidae which have been found so far are represented only by teeth, but these teeth have features which have led paleontologists to classify kuehneotheriids as very close relatives of the first true mammals. But fossil clades based solely on teeth often lead to difficulties, and it is not possible to draw significant conclusions about mammalian evolution from Kuehneotheriidae unless some more complete skeletons are found.

Kuehneotheriidae

Thomas E. Williamson, Stephen L. Brusatte, Gregory P. Wilson · CC BY 4.0 · 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
MammaliaformesPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Mammaliaformes
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Mammaliaformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 1.9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 201.4 Mya to 199.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 205.7 Mya to 184.2 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 7 of 13 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 6 of 13 occurrencesEarly Jurassic206–205 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences205–205 Mya — about 1 occurrence205–204 Mya — about 1 occurrence204–203 Mya — about 1 occurrence203–202 Mya — about 1 occurrence202–202 Mya — about 1 occurrence202–201 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences201–200 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences200–199 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences199–199 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences199–198 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences198–197 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences197–196 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences196–196 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences196–195 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences195–194 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences194–193 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences193–193 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences193–192 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences192–191 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences191–190 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences190–190 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences190–189 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences189–188 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences188–187 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences187–187 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences187–186 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences186–185 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences185–184 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences184–184 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences201.4 Mya – 199.5 Mya206.2 Mya183.7 Mya

13 occurrences of Kuehneotheriidae on record. 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

13 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

4 formations

Grès à Avicula contorta — 48.62°N, 6.33°EFleming Fjord — 71.48°N, 22.68°WGrès de Boisset — 46.91°N, 5.90°EKota — 19.11°N, 79.92°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Kuehneotheriidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

98 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Kuehneotheriidae, 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

11 references

Each of the 13 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 Kuehneotheriidae

Credit
Thomas E. Williamson, Stephen L. Brusatte, Gregory P. Wilson
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Kuehneotheriidae 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 itMammaliaformes through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kermack et al. 1968