Portunites

Portunites is an extinct genus of decapod in the family Polybiidae. There are about 12 described species in Portunites.

Portunites

Ghedoghedo · 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
PolybiinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Decapoda
Life habit
semi-infaunalPBDB, for Portunoidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Malacostraca
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Malacostraca

Time the record covers

At least 36 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 25 occurrencesEocene — about 17 of 25 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 4 of 25 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 4 of 25 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 25 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 1 occurrence46–45 Mya — about 1 occurrence45–43 Mya — about 1 occurrence43–41 Mya — about 1 occurrence41–39 Mya — about 3 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 4 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–32 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 1 occurrence25–24 Mya — about 1 occurrence24–22 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–9.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences9.6–7.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences7.8–6.1 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences6.1–4.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences48.07 Mya11.63 Mya57 Mya4 Mya

25 occurrences of Portunites 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

25 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

13 formations

Miri — 4.81°N, 114.77°EMiri — 4.87°N, 114.82°EPysht — 48.17°N, 123.99°WPysht — 48.17°N, 123.94°WBarton Clay — 50.74°N, 1.69°WLondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ELondon Clay — 51.51°N, 0.24°ELlajas — 34.27°N, 118.71°WBecton — 50.73°N, 1.64°WPoul Creek — 60.00°N, 144.50°WKattachi — 33.01°N, 130.48°EAldwell — 47.75°N, 122.85°WHoko River — 48.39°N, 124.66°WLincoln Creek — 46.58°N, 123.61°WEscalante — 49.53°N, 126.56°WCowlitz — 46.40°N, 122.93°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Portunites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Portunites and its relatives

Eocene

Where Portunites and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

241 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Portunites, 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

15 references

Each of the 25 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. 3 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 Portunites

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

No 3D scan of Portunites 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 itPolybiinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bell 1858