Proscalops

Proscalops is an extinct genus of insect-eating mammal. Formerly placed in the defunct order Insectivora, it is now placed with the Eulipotyphla. The first and most numerous Proscalops fossils were found in the Sharps Formation of South Dakota, near Wounded Knee. Other samples have been found in the Brule Formation of South Dakota, the Deep River Formation of Montana, and in Wyoming.

Proscalops

Skye McDavid · 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
ProscalopidaePBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Theria
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Eutheria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 13 million years on record.

The record covers at least 31.8 Mya to 18.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 37 Mya to 16.3 Mya.

Eocene — about 1 of 61 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 48 of 61 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 12 of 61 occurrencesMiocene38–37 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 2 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 2 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 3 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 3 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 3 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 4 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 4 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 4 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 4 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 4 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 4 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 4 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 3 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 3 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31.8 Mya18.5 Mya37.5 Mya15.8 Mya

61 occurrences of Proscalops 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

61 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

16 formations

Sharps — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 40.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 43.50°N, 101.90°WBrule — 43.20°N, 103.20°WBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 41.70°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.76°N, 101.93°WGering — 41.70°N, 103.10°WJohn Day — 45.08°N, 119.87°WMonroe Creek — 43.30°N, 102.50°WDeep River — 46.50°N, 111.00°WRenova — 46.65°N, 113.05°WRenova — 46.40°N, 112.80°WHarrison — 42.80°N, 100.80°WPawnee Creek — 40.90°N, 103.28°WWhite River — 40.80°N, 103.10°WCypress Hills — 49.60°N, 108.80°WReunion Creek Beds — 42.88°N, 101.35°WWildcat Hills Beds — 41.70°N, 103.67°WCoffee Mill Butte Beds — 42.55°N, 103.35°WLavaca Flats Beds — 42.80°N, 102.20°WChadron — 42.75°N, 103.65°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Proscalops has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Proscalops and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Proscalops and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

488 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 56 sites for Proscalops, 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

26 references

Each of the 61 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. 14 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 Proscalops

Credit
Skye McDavid
Licence
CC BY-SA 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 itProscalopidae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Matthew 1901