Ptilodus

Ptilodus is an extinct genus of mammals from the extinct order of Multituberculata, and lived during the Palaeocene in North America.

Ptilodus

Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com ) · CC BY 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
PtilodontidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB
Life habit
arborealPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

Time the record covers

At least 5.9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 63.4 Mya to 57.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 56 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 99 occurrencesPaleocene — about 99 of 99 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 99 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 1 occurrence65–65 Mya — about 1 occurrence65–65 Mya — about 1 occurrence65–64 Mya — about 1 occurrence64–64 Mya — about 1 occurrence64–64 Mya — about 1 occurrence64–63 Mya — about 3 occurrences63–63 Mya — about 4 occurrences63–62 Mya — about 4 occurrences62–62 Mya — about 4 occurrences62–62 Mya — about 4 occurrences62–61 Mya — about 4 occurrences61–61 Mya — about 4 occurrences61–61 Mya — about 6 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 6 occurrences60–60 Mya — about 6 occurrences60–60 Mya — about 6 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 6 occurrences59–59 Mya — about 6 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 6 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 6 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 6 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 4 occurrences57–57 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences57–57 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences63.4 Mya57.5 Mya66.5 Mya55.5 Mya

99 occurrences of Ptilodus on record, most of them in the Paleocene. 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

99 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

22 formations

Fort Union — 47.10°N, 104.80°WFort Union — 41.30°N, 107.74°WFort Union — 43.85°N, 108.35°WFort Union — 45.80°N, 109.80°WFort Union — 47.80°N, 106.10°WFort Union — 41.70°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 103.90°WFort Union — 44.72°N, 108.38°WFort Union — 44.68°N, 108.32°WFort Union — 43.70°N, 108.70°WFort Union — 43.20°N, 107.10°WFort Union — 45.10°N, 106.90°WFort Union — 45.40°N, 105.60°WFort Union — 44.50°N, 108.00°WFort Union — 43.45°N, 109.16°WFort Union — 39.27°N, 108.18°WFort Union — 44.85°N, 108.74°WPaskapoo — 51.00°N, 114.10°WPaskapoo — 53.23°N, 114.70°WPaskapoo — 52.40°N, 113.80°WPaskapoo — 51.18°N, 114.43°WPaskapoo — 52.00°N, 114.30°WPaskapoo — 51.50°N, 112.30°WPaskapoo — 52.20°N, 113.60°WPaskapoo — 52.35°N, 113.77°WPaskapoo — 54.80°N, 115.46°WPaskapoo — 51.05°N, 114.15°WFerris — 41.94°N, 106.88°WBlack Peaks — 29.20°N, 103.20°WBlack Peaks — 29.42°N, 103.10°WRavenscrag — 49.50°N, 109.20°WRavenscrag — 49.70°N, 110.10°WRavenscrag — 49.06°N, 102.75°WHanna — 41.80°N, 107.00°W"Fort Union" (= Lebo) — 45.80°N, 109.80°WPorcupine Hills — 51.10°N, 114.28°WPorcupine Hills — 51.21°N, 114.04°WPorcupine Hills — 51.10°N, 114.22°WNorth Horn — 39.10°N, 111.80°WNorth Horn — 39.18°N, 111.27°WNacimiento — 36.30°N, 108.20°WNacimiento — 35.70°N, 107.00°WHoback — 42.70°N, 110.10°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 110.70°WEvanston — 41.58°N, 110.68°WEvanston — 41.80°N, 110.70°WSentinel Butte — 47.20°N, 101.90°WSentinel Butte — 47.50°N, 101.20°WBullion Creek — 47.03°N, 103.65°WDeBeque — 40.00°N, 107.90°WDeBeque — 39.27°N, 108.18°WTullock — 47.80°N, 106.10°WCoalspur — 53.00°N, 116.80°WGoler — 35.50°N, 117.77°WSlope — 46.70°N, 101.80°W"Fort Union No. 3" (= Melville) — 45.80°N, 109.80°WMelville — 45.80°N, 109.80°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ptilodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ptilodus and its relatives

Paleocene

Where Ptilodus and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.

Found in the same rock

638 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 92 sites for Ptilodus, 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

44 references

Each of the 99 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. 32 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 content3

Picture of Ptilodus

Credit
Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com )
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Ptilodus montanus · AMNH:FM :35321

3D model

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

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 itPtilodontidae through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1881