Litopterna

Litopterna is an extinct order of South American native ungulates that lived from the Paleocene to the Pleistocene-Holocene around 62.5 million to 12,000 years ago, and were also present in West Antarctica during the Eocene. They represent the second most diverse group of South American ungulates after Notoungulata. It is divided into nine families, with Proterotheriidae and Macraucheniidae being the most diverse and last surviving families.

Litopterna

Ivan Iofrida · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
PanameriungulataPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Eutheria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 61 million years on record.

The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 583 occurrencesPaleocene — about 8 of 583 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 81 of 583 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 30 of 583 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 313 of 583 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 65 of 583 occurrencesPleistocene — about 84 of 583 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 2 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 4 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 6 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 6 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 6 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 9 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 13 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 13 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 10 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 11 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 5 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 1 occurrence31–29 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–27 Mya — about 9 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 10 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 10 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 12 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 26 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 113 occurrences16–13 Mya — about 15 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 47 occurrences11–9.0 Mya — about 18 occurrences9.0–6.7 Mya — about 42 occurrences6.7–4.5 Mya — about 61 occurrences4.5–2.2 Mya — about 45 occurrences2.2–0 Mya — about 82 occurrences61.66 Mya11.7 ka67 Mya0 Mya

583 occurrences of Litopterna on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

583 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

107 formations

Santa Cruz — 51.02°S, 69.15°WSanta Cruz — 51.20°S, 69.12°WSanta Cruz — 50.16°S, 69.67°WSanta Cruz — 50.60°S, 69.08°WSanta Cruz — 51.57°S, 69.42°WSanta Cruz — 50.85°S, 69.13°WSanta Cruz — 47.50°S, 71.88°WSanta Cruz — 51.57°S, 69.47°WSanta Cruz — 50.00°S, 70.00°WSanta Cruz — 51.60°S, 69.56°WSanta Cruz — 51.58°S, 69.23°WSanta Cruz — 51.05°S, 69.13°WSanta Cruz — 50.75°S, 69.18°WSanta Cruz — 51.34°S, 69.02°WSanta Cruz — 51.35°S, 69.00°WSanta Cruz — 50.32°S, 72.10°WSanta Cruz — 47.58°S, 71.85°WSanta Cruz — 50.28°S, 70.28°WSanta Cruz — 50.28°S, 70.22°WSanta Cruz — 50.35°S, 68.95°WSarmiento — 45.33°S, 68.00°WSarmiento — 45.23°S, 67.49°WSarmiento — 45.67°S, 68.67°WSarmiento — 45.77°S, 69.00°WSarmiento — 44.02°S, 68.02°WSarmiento — 44.67°S, 68.42°WSarmiento — 43.28°S, 65.48°WSarmiento — 43.75°S, 69.58°WSarmiento — 44.50°S, 66.00°WSarmiento — 42.86°S, 67.46°WCerro Azul — 38.77°S, 62.16°WCerro Azul — 35.69°S, 64.67°WCerro Azul — 36.25°S, 65.51°WCerro Azul — 37.73°S, 63.53°WCerro Azul — 37.37°S, 65.47°WCerro Azul — 36.70°S, 64.28°WCerro Azul — 37.13°S, 62.81°WCerro Azul — 36.84°S, 65.28°WLa Victoria — 3.22°N, 75.22°WLa Victoria — 3.32°N, 75.17°WLa Victoria — 3.37°N, 75.14°WLa Victoria — 3.24°N, 75.10°WLa Victoria — 3.25°N, 75.13°WLa Victoria — 3.39°N, 75.16°WPinturas — 47.02°S, 70.68°WPinturas — 46.96°S, 70.61°WPinturas — 47.17°S, 70.21°WPinturas — 48.08°S, 70.08°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WMonte Hermoso — 38.98°S, 61.82°WItuzaingo — 31.48°S, 60.23°WItuzaingo — 31.70°S, 60.48°WEpecuén — 37.22°S, 63.55°WEpecuén — 37.18°S, 62.77°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.60°WLa Meseta — 64.22°S, 56.71°WVillavieja — 3.22°N, 75.22°WVillavieja — 3.25°N, 75.17°WVillavieja — 3.21°N, 75.26°WVillavieja — 3.22°N, 75.14°WSopas — 30.43°S, 56.45°WSopas — 31.25°S, 57.00°WSopas — 32.05°S, 56.12°WSopas — 30.98°S, 57.52°WGalera — 46.90°S, 72.30°WSolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WSolimoes — 10.93°S, 69.09°WSolimoes — 10.93°S, 69.92°WCamacho — 34.46°S, 57.83°WCamacho — 34.67°S, 56.84°WCamacho — 34.57°S, 56.97°WArroyo Chasicó — 38.62°S, 62.98°WLas Flores — 45.60°S, 69.08°WLas Flores — 45.40°S, 67.18°WUmala — 18.83°S, 66.15°WUmala — 18.35°S, 67.93°WUmala — 18.97°S, 66.15°WUmala — 17.08°S, 68.00°WItaboraí — 22.84°S, 42.88°WIpururo — 10.63°S, 73.92°WIpururo — 10.40°S, 73.52°WIpururo — 10.81°S, 73.76°WIpururo — 6.59°S, 76.31°WUpper Moquegua — 17.21°S, 71.01°WCerro Bandera — 38.92°S, 69.58°WCerro Bandera — 38.88°S, 69.47°WDolores — 34.42°S, 56.26°WDolores — 34.27°S, 55.99°WDolores — 34.38°S, 57.88°WDolores — 34.46°S, 57.83°WAndalhuala — 26.68°S, 66.03°WAndalhuala — 27.22°S, 66.93°WAndalhuala — 26.98°S, 66.22°WLujan — 36.78°S, 59.87°WLujan — 38.57°S, 58.70°WLujan — 34.60°S, 59.15°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Litopterna has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 83 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 132 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Litopterna and its relatives

Miocene

Where Litopterna and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

2,122 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 295 sites for Litopterna, and this reads 240 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

210 references

Each of the 583 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. 198 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 Litopterna

Credit
Ivan Iofrida
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Litopterna 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 itPanameriungulata through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Ameghino 1889)