Raoellidae

Raoellidae is a family of extinct semiaquatic artiodactyls from the middle Eocene closely related to cetaceans. They are known primarily from northern India and Pakistan, especially in the Subathu Group of India, although potential remains of the raoellid Khirtharia have been found in northern China. They are relatively small animals; on average, raoellids were the size of a red fox. However, Khirtharia major, at about twice the size of an average-sized raoellid, would have been approximately the size of a coyote. Meanwhile, the smallest raoellid, Metkatius, was roughly the size of a house cat.

Raoellidae

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
DichobunoideaPBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Artiodactyla
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Artiodactyla
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At most 19 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 56 Mya and 37.71 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Paleocene — about 0 of 30 occurrencesEocene — about 30 of 30 occurrencesEocene57–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 2 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 2 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 2 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 2 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 2 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 2 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 2 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56.5 Mya37.2 Mya

30 occurrences of Raoellidae 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

30 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

Subathu — 33.23°N, 74.42°ESubathu — 33.79°N, 74.26°ESubathu — 30.97°N, 77.02°ESubathu — 33.21°N, 74.48°EKuldana — 33.78°N, 72.68°EKuldana — 33.62°N, 71.92°EKuldana — 33.63°N, 72.19°EKuldana — 33.63°N, 72.33°EChorgali — 33.43°N, 72.63°ESubathu — 33.25°N, 74.34°E

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The named rock units Raoellidae 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.

Raoellidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Raoellidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

118 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Raoellidae, 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

17 references

Each of the 30 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. 5 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 Raoellidae

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

No 3D scan of Raoellidae 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 itDichobunoidea through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Sahni et al. 1981