Periptychidae

Periptychidae is a family of Cretaceous–Paleocene placental mammals, known definitively only from North America. The family is part of a radiation of early herbivorous and omnivorous mammals formerly classified in the extinct order "Condylarthra", which may be related to some or all living ungulates. Periptychids are distinguished from other "condylarths" by their teeth, which have swollen premolars and unusual vertical enamel ridges. The family includes both large and small genera, with the larger forms having robust skeletons. Known skeletons of periptychids suggest generalized terrestrial habits.

Periptychidae

Sarah L. Shelley, Thomas E. Williamson, Stephen L. Brusatte · CC BY 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
Also called
condylarthPBDB
Sits inside
BulbulodentataPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 28 million years on record.

The record covers at least 89.8 Mya to 60.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 93.9 Mya to 56 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 2 of 315 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 313 of 315 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 315 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 20 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 106 occurrences64–63 Mya — about 93 occurrences63–62 Mya — about 45 occurrences62–60 Mya — about 33 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 7 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 6 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 2 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89.8 Mya60.9 Mya94.7 Mya55.2 Mya

315 occurrences of Periptychidae on record, most of them in the Paleocene. 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

315 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

Nacimiento — 36.30°N, 108.20°WNacimiento — 36.31°N, 108.00°WNacimiento — 36.57°N, 107.97°WNacimiento — 35.70°N, 107.00°WNacimiento — 36.18°N, 107.58°WNacimiento — 36.27°N, 107.76°WDenver — 39.70°N, 104.70°WDenver — 38.80°N, 104.80°WDenver — 39.63°N, 104.33°WDenver — 39.50°N, 104.70°WDenver — 38.87°N, 104.63°WDenver — 38.91°N, 104.53°WNorth Horn — 39.10°N, 111.80°WNorth Horn — 39.00°N, 111.00°WNorth Horn — 39.18°N, 111.27°WNorth Horn — 39.05°N, 111.29°WFerris — 41.80°N, 107.00°WFerris — 41.93°N, 106.86°WFerris — 41.94°N, 106.85°WFort Union — 47.60°N, 107.00°WFort Union — 47.10°N, 104.80°WFort Union — 44.30°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 41.70°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 41.30°N, 107.74°WFort Union — 43.85°N, 108.35°WFort Union — 45.80°N, 109.80°WFort Union — 45.10°N, 106.90°WFort Union — 43.45°N, 109.16°WFort Union — 47.80°N, 106.10°WFort Union — 41.66°N, 107.80°WBlack Peaks — 29.20°N, 103.20°WBlack Peaks — 29.42°N, 103.10°WBlack Peaks — 29.46°N, 103.15°WBlack Peaks — 29.40°N, 103.20°W"Fort Union" (= Lebo) — 46.20°N, 109.90°W"Fort Union" (= Lebo) — 45.80°N, 109.80°WTullock — 47.80°N, 106.10°WTullock — 47.60°N, 107.00°WHanna — 41.80°N, 107.00°WBear — 46.20°N, 109.90°WGoler — 35.50°N, 117.77°WGoler — 35.56°N, 117.96°W"Fort Union No. 3" (= Melville) — 46.20°N, 109.90°W"Fort Union No. 3" (= Melville) — 45.80°N, 109.80°WRavenscrag — 49.50°N, 109.20°WFrenchman — 49.50°N, 109.10°WLudlow — 46.40°N, 103.30°WPaskapoo — 51.18°N, 114.43°WBissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°EShanghu — 25.08°N, 114.17°EChijiang — 25.50°N, 114.50°EHell Creek — 45.66°N, 105.08°W

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The named rock units Periptychidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Periptychidae and its relatives

Paleocene

Where Periptychidae and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.

Found in the same rock

652 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 184 sites for Periptychidae, 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 315 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 content1

Picture of Periptychidae

Credit
Sarah L. Shelley, Thomas E. Williamson, Stephen L. Brusatte
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itBulbulodentata through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1882