Mesodma

Mesodma is an extinct genus of mammal, a member of the extinct order Multituberculata within the suborder Cimolodonta, family Neoplagiaulacidae. It lived during the upper Cretaceous and Paleocene Periods of what is now North America. The earliest definitive record is from the late Santonian stage strata of the Straight Cliffs Formation. A single premolar tooth from the lower Cenomanian stage strata of the Cedar Mountain Formation has been tentatively assigned to this genus based on its similarity, but its describers noted that it is unlikely that Mesodma lived during that time.

Mesodma

Jfstudiospaleoart · 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
NeoplagiaulacidaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Neoplagiaulacidae
Life habit
arborealPBDB, for Ptilodontoidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

Time the record covers

At least 33 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 60.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 57.5 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 254 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 151 of 254 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 103 of 254 occurrencesPaleocene101–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences97–95 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences94–92 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 1 occurrence85–83 Mya — about 2 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 5 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 5 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 5 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 5 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 5 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 5 occurrences75–73 Mya — about 5 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 14 occurrences72–70 Mya — about 26 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 26 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 26 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 32 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 46 occurrences64–63 Mya — about 24 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 4 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 7 occurrences60–58 Mya — about 7 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 3 occurrences93.9 Mya60.9 Mya101.4 Mya56.6 Mya

254 occurrences of Mesodma on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

254 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

35 formations

Hell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.25°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 47.10°N, 104.80°WHell Creek — 45.40°N, 105.60°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.88°WHell Creek — 47.68°N, 106.43°WHell Creek — 47.83°N, 106.18°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 47.62°N, 107.32°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 107.18°WHell Creek — 47.61°N, 106.90°WHell Creek — 46.30°N, 104.50°WHell Creek — 45.76°N, 104.92°WHell Creek — 45.66°N, 105.08°WHell Creek — 46.45°N, 104.02°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WLance — 43.18°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.00°N, 104.50°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.25°N, 104.65°WLance — 44.94°N, 108.85°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 43.80°N, 104.62°WLance — 44.24°N, 109.02°WFort Union — 47.60°N, 107.00°WFort Union — 47.80°N, 106.10°WFort Union — 43.85°N, 108.35°WFort Union — 44.30°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WFort Union — 45.80°N, 109.80°WFort Union — 41.70°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 43.20°N, 107.10°WFort Union — 43.45°N, 109.16°WFort Union — 41.66°N, 107.80°WFort Union — 47.60°N, 106.20°WJudith River — 46.42°N, 109.27°WJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WJudith River — 47.81°N, 109.59°WJudith River — 46.10°N, 109.10°WJudith River — 48.57°N, 109.70°WJudith River — 48.93°N, 110.58°WScollard — 51.91°N, 112.97°WScollard — 51.80°N, 113.00°WRavenscrag — 49.50°N, 109.20°WRavenscrag — 49.70°N, 110.10°WRavenscrag — 49.06°N, 102.75°WRavenscrag — 49.30°N, 108.42°WFerris — 41.94°N, 106.88°WFrenchman — 49.40°N, 107.40°WFrenchman — 49.30°N, 108.40°WFrenchman — 49.50°N, 109.10°WWahweap — 37.60°N, 111.35°WWahweap — 37.56°N, 112.28°WKaiparowits — 37.40°N, 111.20°WKaiparowits — 37.80°N, 111.50°WPaskapoo — 51.18°N, 114.43°WPaskapoo — 52.20°N, 113.60°WPaskapoo — 52.35°N, 113.77°WPaskapoo — 54.80°N, 115.46°WPaskapoo — 51.00°N, 114.10°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.68°WOldman — 49.16°N, 110.72°WOldman — 49.10°N, 110.94°WOjo Alamo — 36.30°N, 108.20°WDenver — 39.70°N, 104.70°WDenver — 39.50°N, 104.70°WMilk River — 49.10°N, 111.80°WMesaverde — 43.20°N, 107.10°WMesaverde — 42.85°N, 107.28°WMesaverde — 44.10°N, 107.76°WFox Hills — 44.50°N, 102.30°WTullock — 47.60°N, 107.00°WTullock — 47.80°N, 106.10°WAguja — 29.20°N, 103.20°WAguja — 29.10°N, 103.17°WAguja — 29.30°N, 103.57°WBear — 46.20°N, 109.90°WBlack Peaks — 29.20°N, 103.20°WBlack Peaks — 29.42°N, 103.10°WCedar Mountain — 38.66°N, 111.24°WFruitland — 36.30°N, 108.20°WEl Gallo — 30.20°N, 115.79°W

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The named rock units Mesodma has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mesodma and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Mesodma and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1,049 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 173 sites for Mesodma, 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

72 references

Each of the 254 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. 60 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 content2

Picture of Mesodma

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

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Mesodma garfieldensis · UCMP:V:218865

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 itNeoplagiaulacidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Jepsen 1940