Microsyops

Microsyops is a plesiadapiform found in the Middle Eocene in North America. It is in the family Microsyopidae, a plesiadapiform family characterized by distinctive lanceolate lower first incisors. It appears to have had a more developed sense of smell than other early primates. It is believed to have eaten fruit, and its fossils show the oldest known dental cavities in a mammal.

Microsyops

via iDigBio · via iDigBio. 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
MicrosyopinaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Primates
Life habit
arborealPBDB, for Primates
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 5.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 51.1 Mya to 45.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 39.7 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 237 occurrencesEocene — about 237 of 237 occurrencesEocene57–56 Mya — about 2 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 16 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 16 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 16 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 16 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 16 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 16 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 16 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 16 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 12 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 10 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 10 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 10 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 10 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 9 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 9 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 9 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 9 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 4 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 1 occurrence45–44 Mya — about 1 occurrence44–44 Mya — about 1 occurrence44–43 Mya — about 1 occurrence43–43 Mya — about 1 occurrence43–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–41 Mya — about 1 occurrence41–40 Mya — about 1 occurrence40–40 Mya — about 1 occurrence40–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51.1 Mya45.9 Mya56.5 Mya39.2 Mya

237 occurrences of Microsyops 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

237 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

20 formations

Willwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 44.59°N, 108.86°WWillwood — 44.42°N, 108.69°WWillwood — 44.44°N, 108.63°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.67°WWillwood — 44.56°N, 108.70°WWillwood — 44.53°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.41°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.33°N, 108.77°WWillwood — 44.35°N, 108.75°WWillwood — 44.52°N, 108.65°WWillwood — 44.62°N, 108.81°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.74°WWillwood — 44.56°N, 108.64°WWillwood — 44.33°N, 108.27°WWasatch — 40.60°N, 108.10°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 42.70°N, 110.10°WWasatch — 41.20°N, 110.50°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 110.70°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 107.00°WWasatch — 42.37°N, 108.91°WWasatch — 41.86°N, 110.75°WBridger — 42.70°N, 110.10°WBridger — 41.70°N, 109.00°WBridger — 41.22°N, 109.72°WBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WBridger — 42.42°N, 109.35°WBridger — 41.80°N, 110.70°WBridger — 41.77°N, 110.33°WBridger — 41.28°N, 110.03°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWind River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.33°WDeBeque — 40.00°N, 107.90°WDeBeque — 39.70°N, 107.60°WAycross — 43.70°N, 108.70°WAycross — 43.90°N, 110.80°WAycross — 44.30°N, 109.00°WHuerfano — 37.80°N, 105.10°WGreen River — 41.80°N, 110.70°WGreen River — 41.70°N, 109.00°WGreen River — 40.20°N, 109.90°WFriars — 32.90°N, 117.10°WFriars — 32.78°N, 117.13°WDevil's Graveyard — 29.20°N, 103.20°WDevil's Graveyard — 29.90°N, 104.20°WWashakie — 40.60°N, 108.10°WWashakie — 41.70°N, 109.00°WWapiti — 44.30°N, 109.00°WSan Jose — 36.50°N, 107.00°WFarisita — 37.80°N, 105.10°WGolden Valley — 46.90°N, 102.80°WMiddle Variegated Sequence — 43.20°N, 108.20°W? Tepee Trail — 43.90°N, 110.80°WLaredo — 27.53°N, 99.43°WWiggins — 43.70°N, 108.70°WUinta — 40.08°N, 109.27°W

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The named rock units Microsyops has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Microsyops and its relatives

Eocene

Where Microsyops and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

807 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 222 sites for Microsyops, 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

50 references

Each of the 237 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. 38 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 Microsyops

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Microsyops annectens · uw:14559

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 itMicrosyopinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Leidy 1872