Pterodon

Pterodon is an extinct genus of hyaenodont in the family Hyainailouridae, containing two species. The type species Pterodon dasyuroides is known exclusively from the late Eocene to the earliest Oligocene of western Europe. The genus was first erected by the French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1839, who said that Georges Cuvier presented one of its fossils to a conference in 1828 but died before he could make a formal description of it. It was the second hyaenodont genus with taxonomic validity after Hyaenodon, but this resulted in taxonomic confusion over the validities of the two genera by other taxonomists. Although the taxonomic status of Pterodon was revised during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it became a wastebasket taxon for other hyaenodont species found in Africa and Asia. Today, only the type species is recognized as belonging to the genus while just one is pending reassessment to another genus.

Pterodon

Ghedo · 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
HyainailourinaePBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Theria
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Eutheria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 27 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 13.82 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 11.63 Mya.

Eocene — about 6 of 18 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 8 of 18 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 4 of 18 occurrencesMiocene49–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–35 Mya — about 1 occurrence35–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–32 Mya — about 1 occurrence32–31 Mya — about 1 occurrence31–30 Mya — about 1 occurrence30–29 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–26 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences41.03 Mya13.82 Mya48.8 Mya10.9 Mya

18 occurrences of Pterodon 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

18 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

4 formations

Jebel Qatrani — 29.45°N, 30.58°EJebel Qatrani — 29.64°N, 30.58°EJebel Qatrani — 29.50°N, 30.50°EBembridge Limestone — 50.67°N, 1.53°WManchar — 26.33°N, 67.83°EShara Murum — 42.04°N, 111.53°E

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The named rock units Pterodon 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.

Pterodon and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Pterodon and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

207 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Pterodon, 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

13 references

Each of the 18 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. 1 further reference is 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 content3

Picture of Pterodon

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

Laser scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Pterodon dasyuroides · NHMUK:PAL:PV M 25985 b

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itHyainailourinae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Blainville 1839