Lambdotherium

Lambdotherium is a genus of North American perissodactyl from the lower Eocene. The genus is currently monospecific, containing only the species L. popoagicum. Lambdotherium is traditionally interpreted as a close relative of the brontotheres; some studies propose alternate placements, such as Lambdotherium being a primitive palaeothere or a close relative of that group.

Lambdotherium

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
BrontotheriidaePBDB
Diet
browserPBDB, for Brontotheriidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Brontotheriidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 11 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 56 Mya and 45.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Paleocene — about 0 of 81 occurrencesEocene — about 81 of 81 occurrencesEocene56–56 Mya — about 4 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 6 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 6 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 6 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 6 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 6 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 6 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 6 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 6 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 6 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 6 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 6 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 6 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 4 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56.5 Mya45.4 Mya

81 occurrences of Lambdotherium 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

81 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

10 formations

Wind River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWind River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WWasatch — 42.70°N, 110.10°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 107.00°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 110.70°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 42.37°N, 108.91°WWasatch — 42.98°N, 110.12°WDeBeque — 39.70°N, 107.60°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 44.33°N, 108.77°WGreen River — 41.80°N, 110.70°WGreen River — 40.24°N, 109.13°WGreen River — 41.70°N, 109.00°WHuerfano — 37.80°N, 105.10°WMiddle Variegated Sequence — 43.20°N, 108.20°WMargaret — 78.50°N, 82.00°WFarisita — 37.80°N, 105.10°WLower Variegated Sequence — 43.20°N, 108.20°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Lambdotherium and its relatives

Eocene

Where Lambdotherium and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

330 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 79 sites for Lambdotherium, 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

32 references

Each of the 81 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. 20 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 content2

Picture of Lambdotherium

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itBrontotheriidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1880