Potamotherium

Potamotherium an extinct genus of caniform carnivoran from the Miocene epoch of France and Germany. It has historically been assigned to the family Mustelidae, but more recent studies suggest that it represents a primitive relative of pinnipeds

Potamotherium

Smokeybjb · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikidata/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
PinnipedimorphaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pinnipedimorpha
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Pinnipedimorpha
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
coastalPBDB, for Pinnipedimorpha

Time the record covers

At least 9.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 13.82 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 11.1 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 10 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 9 of 10 occurrencesMiocene28–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–15 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23.04 Mya13.82 Mya27.8 Mya10.6 Mya

10 occurrences of Potamotherium on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

10 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

Ville — 50.90°N, 6.45°EStudienka — 48.20°N, 17.00°EEnspel — 50.61°N, 7.89°ETörökbálint — 47.63°N, 18.71°ESables de l'Orleanais — 48.06°N, 2.07°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Potamotherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Potamotherium and its relatives

Miocene

Where Potamotherium and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

303 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Potamotherium, 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 10 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 content1

Picture of Potamotherium

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

No 3D scan of Potamotherium 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 itPinnipedimorpha through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Geoffroy 1833