Tetraclaenodon

Tetraclaenodon was a genus of small and early ungulate mammals that was part of the Phenacodontidae family. It is the oldest and most primitive phenacodontid. Its fossils known from the Nacimiento Formation, New Mexico. In 2012, Tetraclaenodon was defined as the basalmost member of the clade containing "Phenacodontidae" and Altungulata.

Tetraclaenodon

Skye McDavid · 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
PhenacodontidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 5.9 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 63.4 Mya and 57.5 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Paleocene — about 50 of 50 occurrencesPaleocene63–63 Mya — about 3 occurrences63–63 Mya — about 4 occurrences63–63 Mya — about 4 occurrences63–63 Mya — about 4 occurrences63–62 Mya — about 4 occurrences62–62 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 4 occurrences61–61 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences60–60 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences60–60 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences60–60 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences60–60 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences59–59 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences59–59 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences59–59 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences63.9 Mya57 Mya

50 occurrences of Tetraclaenodon 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

50 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

7 formations

Nacimiento — 36.30°N, 108.20°WNacimiento — 35.70°N, 107.00°WNacimiento — 36.57°N, 107.97°WNacimiento — 36.18°N, 107.58°WNacimiento — 36.27°N, 107.76°WFort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WFort Union — 41.70°N, 109.00°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°W"Fort Union" (= Lebo) — 46.20°N, 109.90°W"Fort Union" (= Lebo) — 45.80°N, 109.80°WHanna — 41.80°N, 107.00°W"Fort Union No. 3" (= Melville) — 45.80°N, 109.80°W"Fort Union No. 3" (= Melville) — 46.20°N, 109.90°WPorcupine Hills — 51.00°N, 114.10°WPorcupine Hills — 51.10°N, 114.28°WGoler — 35.49°N, 117.78°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Tetraclaenodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Tetraclaenodon and its relatives

Paleocene

Where Tetraclaenodon and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.

Found in the same rock

264 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 50 sites for Tetraclaenodon, 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

19 references

Each of the 50 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. 7 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 content2

Picture of Tetraclaenodon

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

3D model

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

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 itPhenacodontidae through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Scott 1892