Lipotidae

Lipotidae is a possibly extinct family of river dolphins containing the critically endangered/functionally extinct Chinese river dolphin baiji and the fossil genus Parapontoporia from the Pacific coast of North America during the Late Miocene and Pliocene The genus Prolipotes, which is based on a mandible fragment from Neogene coastal deposits in Guangxi, China, has been classified as an extinct relative of the baiji, but is dubious. The oldest known member of the family is Eolipotes from the Late Miocene of Japan.

Lipotidae

Alessio Marrucci · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
DelphinidaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Odontoceti
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Cetacea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marine,freshwaterPBDB, for Odontoceti

Time the record covers

At least 7.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 5 of 12 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 12 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 12 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 2 of 12 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.9–8.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.5–8.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.1–7.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.1–5.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.4–4.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.2–2.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.8–2.4 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences404 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.246 Mya11.7 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

12 occurrences of Lipotidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

12 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

7 formations

San Diego — 32.74°N, 117.17°WSan Diego — 32.90°N, 117.10°WOgane — 36.60°N, 139.97°EAlmejas — 28.11°N, 115.18°WPurisima — 36.92°N, 121.85°WYushima — 38.98°N, 141.12°ETulare — 35.89°N, 119.92°WHaraichi — 36.31°N, 138.87°E

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The named rock units Lipotidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lipotidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Lipotidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

87 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Lipotidae, 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

10 references

Each of the 12 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 Lipotidae

Credit
Alessio Marrucci
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Lipotidae 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 itDelphinida through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zhou et al. 1978