Simocetidae

Simocetus rayi Fordyce, 2002, a relative of Simocetidae — not Simocetidae itself

Not Simocetidae. This is Simocetus rayi Fordyce, 2002, a relative — both are Simocetidae.

D. Emlong · CC0 · via GBIF. 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
AmblyoccipitaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Odontoceti
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Cetacea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Cetacea
Environment
marine,freshwaterPBDB, for Odontoceti

Time the record covers

At most 11 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 33.9 Mya and 23.04 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 0 of 7 occurrencesOligocene — about 7 of 7 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 7 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences30–30 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34.4 Mya22.5 Mya

7 occurrences of Simocetidae on record, most of them in the Oligocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

7 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

2 formations

Pysht — 48.16°N, 123.90°WAlsea — 44.62°N, 123.95°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Simocetidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Simocetidae and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Simocetidae and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

38 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Simocetidae, 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

4 references

Each of the 7 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Simocetus rayi Fordyce, 2002

Source
GBIF
Credit
D. Emlong
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Simocetidae 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.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAmblyoccipita through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fordyce 2002