Obdurodon insignis

Obdurodon is a genus of extinct platypus-like Australian monotreme which lived from the Late Oligocene to the Late Miocene. Three species have been described in the genus, the type species Obdurodon insignis, plus Obdurodon dicksoni and Obdurodon tharalkooschild. Obdurodon appeared much like their modern day relative the platypus, except adults retained their molar teeth, and unlike the platypus, which forages on the lakebed, they may have foraged in the water column or surface.

Obdurodon insignis

Skye McDavid · 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
ObdurodonPBDB
Diet
insectivore, herbivorePBDB, for Ornithorhynchidae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Mammaliaformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

Time the record covers

At most 11 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 33.9 Mya and 23.04 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 0 of 5 occurrencesOligocene — about 5 of 5 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 5 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences34.4 Mya22.5 Mya

5 occurrences of Obdurodon insignis on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

5 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

3 formations

Namba — 31.23°S, 140.23°ENamba — 31.10°S, 140.23°EEtadunna — 28.78°S, 138.40°EEttadunna — 28.78°S, 138.42°E

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The named rock units Obdurodon insignis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Obdurodon insignis and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Obdurodon insignis and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

55 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Obdurodon insignis, 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

4 references

Each of the 5 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 Obdurodon insignis

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

No 3D scan of Obdurodon insignis 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 itObdurodon through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Woodburne and Tedford 1975