Litopterna

Searched as Litopterna indet.. The Paleobiology Database treats Litopterna as the accepted name.

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 48 million years on record.

The record covers at least 56 Mya to 7.246 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 57 Mya to 5 Mya.

Paleocene — about 1 of 17 occurrencesEocene — about 3 of 17 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 17 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 9 of 17 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 17 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–35 Mya — about 1 occurrence35–33 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–24 Mya — about 1 occurrence24–22 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–15 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–9.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.4–7.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.6–5.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.8–4.0 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences56 Mya7.246 Mya58 Mya4 Mya

17 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

17 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

13 formations

Chambira — 7.32°S, 74.93°WChambira — 7.35°S, 74.95°WCamacho — 34.67°S, 56.84°WCamacho — 34.57°S, 56.97°WLas Flores — 45.37°S, 67.74°WCerro Azul — 36.25°S, 65.51°WLetrero — 3.33°S, 79.05°WCastillo — 10.37°N, 70.07°WGeste — 26.06°S, 67.41°WPozo — 7.33°S, 74.95°WPebas — 7.37°S, 74.96°WAgua de la Piedra — 36.55°S, 69.70°WLas Floras — 31.14°S, 69.51°WSanta Cruz — 47.58°S, 71.85°WLas Chacras — 41.37°S, 69.65°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Litopterna 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.

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

14 references

Each of the 17 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. 2 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 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 itPanameriungulata through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

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