Category Archives: Research

P is for Protylopus

Protylopus is an extinct type of camel that lived from the middle to late Eocene in North America. It is the oldest known camel.

O is for Ourayia

Ourayia is a fossil primate, which, like Notoparamys, is related to tarsiers. Like many fossil mammals, it is best known for its teeth.

N is for Notoparamys

Notoparamys was a marmot-sized rodent that lived in the earliest Uintan. It is a member of the rodent group Ischyromyidae, which included some arboreal (climbing) rodents.

 

M is for Macrotarsius

Macrotarsius is a fossil primate closely related to and similar in appearance to modern tarsiers.

Modern tarsiers are unique in the structure of their back foot, specifically the ankle bones (the tarsals), hence their common name of ‘tarsier.’

 

 

L is for Leptotragulus

Leptotragulus was a hoofed mammal that would have roughly looked like a deer, but were more closely related to camels and llamas. They were a member of a group called the Protoceratidae, that were unique in having horns on their snouts.

Here is a relative of Leptotragulus, Synthetoceras:

 

K is for Knightomys

Knightomys is a rodent. The mys part of the name translates roughly to ‘mouse.’ The Knight part likely refers to Charles Knight, an important paleontologist in the history of Wyoming, for whom many species are named.

 

J is for Janimus

Janimus is a rodent. It is thought that it is in the same family as modern beavers, despite some differences. It’s teeny tiny molar teeth were each about 1 mm square. Janimus in life may have been about the size of a large squirrel.

I is for Isectolophus

Isectolophus is another hoofed mammal. There seem to have been many in the middle Eocene. (The reality is that it’s probably a collection bias – hoofed mammals are bigger and easier for paleontologists to spot than little rodents and primates and things, but that’s a different story.)

Isectolophus is most closely related to modern tapirs.

H is for Harpagolestes

So far, every fossil I’ve talked about has been a large, hoofed mammal. Well, something has to eat all those herbivores.

Thus enter Harpagolestes.

Harpagolestes was a bear-sized, hyena-like mesonychid carnivore. For a long time, scientists thought that mesonychid carnivores were the ancestors of modern whales due to similarities in the teeth. (New analyses put whales more closely related to hoofed mammals.)