Palaeosinopa

Palaeosinopa
Temporal range: 58.9–50.0 Ma late Paleocene to early Eocene
reconstruction of Palaeosinopa didelphoides
fossil of Palaeosinopa didelphoides with fossils of fish species Knightia alta from Wyoming
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: †Pantolesta
Family: †Pantolestidae
Subfamily: †Pantolestinae
Genus: †Palaeosinopa
Matthew, 1901
Type species
†Palaeosinopa didelphoides
Cope, 1881
Species
  • †P. aestuarium (Beard & Dawson, 2009)
  • †P. didelphoides (Cope, 1881)
  • †P. dorri (Gingerich, 1980)
  • †P. incerta (Bown & Schankler, 1982)
  • †P. lacus (Gunnell, 2016)
  • †P. lutreola (Matthew, 1918)
  • †P. nunavutensis (Eberle & McKenna, 2002)
  • †P. osborni (Lemoine, 1891)
  • †P. reclusum (Rankin, 2014)
  • †P. russelli (Smith, 1997)
Synonyms
synonyms of species:
  • P. didelphoides:
    • Ictops didelphoides (Cope, 1881)
    • Palaeosinopa veterrima (Matthew, 1901)

Palaeosinopa ("ancient Sinopa") is an extinct genus of semi-aquatic mammals belonging to the subfamily Pantolestinae within family Pantolestidae. Species in this genus lived from the late Paleocene to early Eocene in North America and Europe. Their diet consisted of other aquatic life forms.

Description

Palaeosinopa was a medium-sized, semi-aquatic mammal structurally convergent with modern otters. Based on an exceptionally complete, articulated skeleton discovered in the Eocene-aged Green River Formation of Wyoming, P.didelphoides measured approximately 1 meter (3.3 ft) in total length from the snout to the tip of the tail and is estimated to have weighed roughly 5 kilograms (11 lbs).

References

  1. ↑ Matthew, W. D. (1901.) "Additional observations on the Creodonta." Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 14: 1-38
  2. ↑ K. Christopher Beard; Mary R. Dawson (2009). "Early Wasatchian Mammals of the Red Hot Local Fauna, Uppermost Tuscahoma Formation, Lauderdale County, Mississippi". Annals of Carnegie Museum. 78 (3): 193–243. doi:10.2992/007.078.0301.
  3. ↑ E. D. Cope (1881). "On the Vertebrata of the Wind River Eocene beds of Wyoming". Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey. 6 (1): 183–202.
  4. ↑ P. D. Gingerich (1980.) "A new species of Palaeosinopa (Insectivora: Pantolestidae) from the late Paleocene of western North America." Journal of Mammalogy 61(3):449-454
  5. ↑ T. M. Bown and D. Schankler (1982.) "A review of the Proteutheria and Insectivora of the Willwood Formation (Lower Eocene), Bighorn Basin, Wyoming." United States Geological Survey Bulletin 1523:1-79
  6. ↑ Gregg F. Gunnell; John-Paul Zonneveld; William S. Bartels (2016). "Stratigraphy, mammalian paleontology, paleoecology, and age correlation of the Wasatch Formation, Fossil Butte National Monument, Wyoming". Journal of Paleontology. 90 (5): 981–1011. Bibcode:2016JPal...90..981G. doi:10.1017/jpa.2016.100. S2CID 132883994.
  7. ↑ W. D. Matthew (1918). "A revision of the Lower Eocene Wasatch and Wind River faunas. Part V. Insectivora (Continued), Glires, Edentata". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 38 (16): 429–483.
  8. ↑ Eberle, Jaelyn; McKenna, Malcolm (2002). "Early Eocene Leptictida, Pantolesta, Creodonta, Carnivora, and Mesonychidae (Mammalia) from the Eureka Sound Group, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 39 (6): 899–910. Bibcode:2002CaJES..39..899E. doi:10.1139/e02-001.
  9. ↑ Lemoine V. (1891.) "Étude d’ensemble sur les dents des mammifères fossiles des environs de Reims." Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France Série 3: 263–290.
  10. ↑ Rankin, Brian D. (2014). "New pantolestids (Mammalia, Eutheria) from the late Paleocene (late middle Tiffanian) Roche Percée local fauna, southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada". Journal of Paleontology. 88 (6): 1199–1211. doi:10.1666/13-157. ISSN 0022-3360. Retrieved 3 June 2025 – via Cambridge Core.
  11. ↑ R. Smith (1997.) "Palaeosinopa russelli (Mammalia, Pantolesta), une espece nouvelle du Membre de Dormaal, proche de la limite Paleocene-Eocene." Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique 67:153-159
  12. ↑ J. Alroy. (2002.) "Synonymies and reidentifications of North American fossil mammals."