Plesiadapis

Plesiadapis is an extinct genus of mammal closely related to primates, which lived in North America and western Europe during the Paleogene period (Selandian-Ypresian). The type species, P. tricuspidens, was described in 1877 by François Louis Paul Gervais, based on a partial left mandible uncovered in France. Fourteen valid species have since been named.

Plesiadapis

Jonathan Chen · 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
PlesiadapidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Plesiadapoidea
Life habit
arborealPBDB, for Plesiadapoidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Plesiadapoidea

Time the record covers

At least 5.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 56 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 48.07 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 230 occurrencesPaleocene — about 221 of 230 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 9 of 230 occurrencesEocene67–66 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences65–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences65–64 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences64–63 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences63–63 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences63–62 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences62–61 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences61–61 Mya — about 3 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 24 occurrences60–60 Mya — about 24 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 25 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 27 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 27 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 32 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 34 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 22 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences61.66 Mya56 Mya66.5 Mya47.6 Mya

230 occurrences of Plesiadapis 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

230 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

23 formations

Fort Union — 47.80°N, 106.10°WFort Union — 41.70°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 103.90°WFort Union — 44.30°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 43.85°N, 108.35°WFort Union — 44.72°N, 108.38°WFort Union — 44.68°N, 108.32°WFort Union — 45.20°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.89°N, 108.91°WFort Union — 43.20°N, 107.10°WFort Union — 45.40°N, 105.60°WFort Union — 43.45°N, 109.16°WFort Union — 41.92°N, 108.56°WFort Union — 44.50°N, 108.00°WFort Union — 43.20°N, 108.20°WFort Union — 44.72°N, 108.62°WFort Union — 44.67°N, 108.46°WFort Union — 39.27°N, 108.18°WFort Union — 44.51°N, 108.88°WFort Union — 44.53°N, 108.96°WFort Union — 44.83°N, 108.82°WFort Union — 44.05°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.88°N, 109.12°WFort Union — 44.85°N, 108.77°WFort Union — 44.85°N, 108.74°WFort Union — 44.92°N, 108.97°WFort Union — 44.85°N, 108.89°WFort Union — 41.83°N, 108.60°WPaskapoo — 53.23°N, 114.70°WPaskapoo — 51.18°N, 114.43°WPaskapoo — 52.20°N, 113.60°WPaskapoo — 51.50°N, 112.30°WPaskapoo — 54.80°N, 115.46°WPaskapoo — 51.10°N, 114.50°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 110.70°WWasatch — 41.27°N, 110.33°WWasatch — 42.24°N, 110.19°WGoler — 35.55°N, 117.83°WGoler — 35.50°N, 117.77°WDeBeque — 39.20°N, 108.20°WDeBeque — 39.27°N, 108.18°WLower Variegated Sequence — 43.90°N, 110.80°WSables de Bracheux — 49.27°N, 4.15°ESuffolk Pebble Beds — 52.10°N, 1.32°EHanna — 41.80°N, 107.00°WHoback — 42.70°N, 110.10°WSentinel Butte — 48.40°N, 103.50°WSentinel Butte — 47.50°N, 101.20°WRavenscrag — 49.70°N, 110.10°WRavenscrag — 49.06°N, 102.75°WBullion Creek — 47.03°N, 103.65°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 44.62°N, 108.50°WConglomérat de Cernay — 49.27°N, 4.10°ETienen — 50.33°N, 4.28°ETienen — 50.82°N, 5.10°EMarnes de Dormans — 49.08°N, 3.47°ESlope — 46.70°N, 101.80°WEvanston — 41.80°N, 110.70°W"Fort Union No. 3" (= Melville) — 45.80°N, 109.80°WMelville — 45.80°N, 109.80°WLignites de Soissonais — 49.15°N, 3.92°EVaugirard — 48.81°N, 2.24°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Plesiadapis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 70 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Plesiadapis and its relatives

Paleocene

Where Plesiadapis and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.

Found in the same rock

784 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 190 sites for Plesiadapis, 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

55 references

Each of the 230 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. 43 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 Plesiadapis

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Plesiadapis tricuspidens · du:ea:DCC04

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 itPlesiadapidae through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gervais 1877