Lutreolina

Lutreolina is a genus of opossum found in South America. Both extant species in this genus are known as lutrine opossums. They have an otter-like body plan and occasionally semiaquatic tendencies, hence the genus name Lutreolina, which is Latin for "otter-like".

Lutreolina

Bell, Thomas; Darwin, Charles; Gould, Elizabeth; Gould, John; Owen, Richard; Waterhouse, G. R. · Public Domain · 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
Also called
lutrine opossumPBDB
Sits inside
DidelphiniPBDB
Diet
omnivore, carnivorePBDB, for Didelphidae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Didelphidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Didelphidae

Time the record covers

At least 5.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 2 of 18 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 10 of 18 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 5 of 18 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 18 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.5–8.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.1–7.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 0.2 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 0.6 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.4–4.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.0–3.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.2–2.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.6–1.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.2–809 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence809 ka–404 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences404 ka–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.333 Mya11.7 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

18 occurrences of Lutreolina on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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

18 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

9 formations

Chapadmalal — 38.00°S, 58.00°WChapadmalal — 38.12°S, 57.70°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WTarija — 21.53°S, 64.73°WEpecuén — 37.22°S, 63.55°WSolimoes — 10.93°S, 69.92°WPuerto Belgrano — 38.98°S, 61.82°WCorral Quemado — 27.23°S, 66.93°WBotucatu — 29.56°S, 51.40°WSan Andrés — 38.62°S, 58.83°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Lutreolina has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lutreolina and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Lutreolina and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

285 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Lutreolina, 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

12 references

Each of the 18 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 Lutreolina

Credit
Bell, Thomas; Darwin, Charles; Gould, Elizabeth; Gould, John; Owen, Richard; Waterhouse, G. R.
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Lutreolina 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 itDidelphini through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Thomas 1910