Palaeobatrachus

Palaeobatrachus is an extinct genus of frogs from Europe that existed from the middle Eocene to the middle Pleistocene, spanning almost 50 million years. They were obligately aquatic, and would have not spent much time on dry land. They are one of two genera and by far the largest genus in the family Palaeobatrachidae, which are considered to be members of Pipimorpha, related to the South American-African family Pipidae, which includes the African clawed frog and Surinam toad.

Palaeobatrachus

Kozuch · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
PalaeobatrachidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 63 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 774 ka.

Late Cretaceous — about 4 of 30 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 30 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 30 occurrencesOligocene — about 10 of 30 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 13 of 30 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 30 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 30 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 2 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 2 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–56 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 2 occurrences32–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 3 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 3 occurrences12–9.8 Mya — about 6 occurrences9.8–7.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.4–4.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.9–2.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.5–0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences66 Mya2.58 Mya74 Mya0 Mya

30 occurrences of Palaeobatrachus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

30 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

Lance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.00°N, 104.50°WSajovolgyi — 47.97°N, 19.69°EBorgloon — 50.85°N, 4.82°EBorgloon — 50.87°N, 4.98°EGaverdovsky — 44.61°N, 40.03°EConglomérat de Cernay — 49.27°N, 4.10°EAgenais Limestone — 44.31°N, 0.61°EHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WEdelény — 48.39°N, 20.64°EPorsuk — 39.34°N, 31.92°E

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The named rock units Palaeobatrachus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 15 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Palaeobatrachus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Palaeobatrachus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

609 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 26 sites for Palaeobatrachus, 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

20 references

Each of the 30 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. 8 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 Palaeobatrachus

Credit
Kozuch
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Palaeobatrachus 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 itPalaeobatrachidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Tschudi 1839