Phiomia

Phiomia is an extinct genus of basal elephantiform proboscidean that lived in what is now Northern Africa during the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene some 37–30 million years ago. The type specimen of Phiomia, part of the mandible, was described in 1902 by Charles William Andrews and Hugh John Llewellyn. Unsure of its identity, they assigned it, tentatively, to the obsolete order Creodonta. Subsequently, it was recognised as a proboscidean. Briefly it was treated as a junior synonym of Palaeomastodon, but the two are regarded as separate genera. Though five species have been assigned to Phiomia over the years, only two, P. serridens and P. major, are currently recognised.

Phiomia

LadyofHats · Public Domain · 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
ProboscideaPBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Proboscidea
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Proboscidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 10 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 27.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 23.04 Mya.

Eocene — about 4 of 13 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 9 of 13 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 13 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37.71 Mya27.3 Mya41.5 Mya22.5 Mya

13 occurrences of Phiomia 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

13 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

5 formations

Jebel Qatrani — 29.64°N, 30.58°EIdam Unit — 25.71°N, 18.18°ELokone Sandstone — 2.22°N, 35.57°EMalembo — 5.34°S, 12.18°EAshawq — 17.06°N, 54.42°E

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The named rock units Phiomia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Phiomia and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Phiomia and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

146 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Phiomia, 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

8 references

Each of the 13 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 content2

Picture of Phiomia

Credit
LadyofHats
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
Tim
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itProboscidea through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Andrews and Beadnell 1902