Prototherium

Prototherium is a genus of extinct sirenian related to the dugong. It is known from middle (Bartonian) and upper Eocene deposits in Italy and Spain. Type species is P. veronenses

Prototherium

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
HalitheriinaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Dugongidae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Sirenia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Sirenia

Time the record covers

At least 3.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 33.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 23.04 Mya.

Eocene — about 24 of 25 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 25 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 25 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 5 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 5 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 5 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 3 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences37.71 Mya33.9 Mya48.6 Mya22.5 Mya

25 occurrences of Prototherium 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

5 formations

Orizzonte di Roncà — 45.81°N, 11.29°EVic Marls — 41.85°N, 2.23°EPossagno Marl — 45.85°N, 11.87°EMargas de Pamplona — 42.56°N, 0.71°WVic-Manlleu — 41.84°N, 2.21°E

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The named rock units Prototherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Prototherium and its relatives

Eocene

Where Prototherium and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

30 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Prototherium, 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

11 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. 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 Prototherium

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

No 3D scan of Prototherium was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itHalitheriinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (de Zigno 1887)