Lophialetes

Lophialetes is an extinct genus of lophialetid from the Eocene epoch found in China.

Lophialetes

Jonathan Chen · CC BY 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
LophialetidaePBDB
Diet
browserPBDB, for Tapiromorpha
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Tapiromorpha
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 33 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 56 Mya and 23.04 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Paleocene — about 0 of 21 occurrencesEocene — about 19 of 21 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 21 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 21 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 2 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 2 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 2 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 2 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–36 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56.7 Mya22.4 Mya

21 occurrences of Lophialetes 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

21 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

12 formations

Irdin Manha — 43.33°N, 111.76°EIrdin Manha — 42.63°N, 111.35°EChonkurchak — 42.52°N, 76.17°EHetaoyuan — 33.25°N, 111.45°EKholboldchi — 45.18°N, 100.67°EIrtysh River — 47.48°N, 85.88°EGuanzhuang — 35.91°N, 117.78°ELushi — 34.05°N, 111.03°ELumeiyi — 24.76°N, 103.33°EShara Murum — 42.04°N, 111.53°EKhaychin — 43.72°N, 99.93°EChakpaktas — 48.00°N, 84.00°EUlan Shireh — 42.52°N, 110.97°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Lophialetes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lophialetes and its relatives

Eocene

Where Lophialetes and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

137 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 20 sites for Lophialetes, 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

16 references

Each of the 21 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. 4 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 Lophialetes

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itLophialetidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Matthew and Granger 1925