Palaeonictis

Palaeonictis is an extinct genus of placental mammals from extinct subfamily Palaeonictinae within extinct family Oxyaenidae, that lived in Europe and North America from the Late Paleocene to the Early Eocene. Palaeonictines were a group of oxyaenids that consisted of omnivorous oxyaenids and were closely related to the hypercarnivorous macheroidines. Palaeonictis was a small to medium sized oxyaenid, with the largest species, P. peloria, weighing 11.7 kg (26 lb).

Palaeonictis

FunkMonk · 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
PalaeonictinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Oxyaenidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Oxyaenidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 9.5 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 57.5 Mya and 48.07 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Paleocene — about 8 of 43 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 35 of 43 occurrencesEocene58–57 Mya — about 1 occurrence57–57 Mya — about 2 occurrences57–57 Mya — about 2 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 2 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 2 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 2 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 2 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 2 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 2 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 2 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 2 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 2 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 2 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 2 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 2 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 2 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 2 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences58 Mya47.6 Mya

43 occurrences of Palaeonictis 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

43 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

Willwood — 44.00°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.60°N, 108.32°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 44.54°N, 108.65°WWillwood — 44.53°N, 108.43°WWillwood — 44.63°N, 108.88°WWillwood — 44.57°N, 108.58°WWillwood — 44.66°N, 108.78°WWillwood — 43.92°N, 107.70°WWillwood — 44.42°N, 108.20°WDeBeque — 39.20°N, 108.20°WDeBeque — 39.70°N, 107.60°WTienen — 50.82°N, 5.10°ETienen — 50.78°N, 4.90°EMargaret — 78.50°N, 82.00°WArgiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°EVaugirard — 48.81°N, 2.24°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.15°N, 3.92°EBlackheath Beds — 51.43°N, 0.15°EWoolwich — 51.37°N, 0.09°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Palaeonictis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Palaeonictis and its relatives

Eocene

Where Palaeonictis and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

441 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 42 sites for Palaeonictis, 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

14 references

Each of the 43 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. 2 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 Palaeonictis

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

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Palaeonictis wingi · UF:VP:244450

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 itPalaeonictinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. de Blainville 1842