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Prototherium ✝

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Description

Prototherium is a genus of extinct sirenian related to the dugong. It is known from middle (Bartonian) and upper Eocene deposits in Italy and Spain. Type species is P. veronenses (Zigno, 1887)

From Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototherium, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

Source Data

Source	ID	Link
Global Biodiversity Information Facility ID (GBIF)	4834634	https://www.gbif.org/species/4834634
PaleoBioDB ID (PBDB)	36897	https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=36897

Rank

genus

Taxonomy (GBIF)

Life : Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Sirenia : Dugongidae : Prototherium

Taxonomy (PBDB)

Life : Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Sirenia : Dugongidae : Prototherium

Taxonomic Status (GBIF)

accepted

Classification
(PBDB,GBIF)

Rank	Name	Author
-	Eukaryota
-	Opisthokonta	Cavalier-Smith 1987
kingdom	Animalia
-	Triploblastica	Lankester 1877
-	Nephrozoa	Jondelius et al. 2002
-	Deuterostomia	Grobben 1908
phylum	Chordata	Haeckel 1847
subphylum	Vertebrata	Lamarck 1801
superclass	Gnathostomata	Gegenbauer 1874
-	Osteichthyes
-	Sarcopterygii	Romer 1955
subclass	Dipnotetrapodomorpha
subclass	Tetrapodomorpha
-	Tetrapoda
-	Reptiliomorpha	Säve-Söderbergh 1934
-	Anthracosauria	Säve-Söderbergh 1934
-	Batrachosauria
-	Cotylosauria
-	Amniota	Haeckel 1866
-	Synapsida	Osborn 1903
-	Therapsida
infraorder	Cynodontia
-	Epicynodontia	Hopson and Kitching 2001
infraorder	Eucynodontia	Kemp 1982
-	Probainognathia	Hopson 1990
-	Mammaliamorpha	Rowe 1988
-	Mammaliaformes	Rowe 1988
class	Mammalia	Linnaeus 1758
-	Pansirenia	Velez-Juarbe and Wood 2019
-	Sirenia
family	Dugongidae	Gray 1821
subfamily	Halitheriinae
genus	Prototherium	Zigno 1887

Scientific Name

Prototherium Zigno, 1887

Name Published In

Bull. Soc. Géol. France, (3) 15

Opinions (PBDB)

Name	Rank	Opinion	Evidence	Author
Prototherium	subgenus	belongs to Halitherium	stated without evidence	de Zigno, 1887
Prototherium	genus	belongs to Halitheriinae	stated without evidence	Abel, 1919
Prototherium	genus	belongs to Prototheriidae	stated without evidence	Kretzoi, 1941
Prototherium	genus	belongs to Eotheroididae	stated without evidence	Heal, 1973
Prototherium	genus	belongs to Halitheriinae	stated without evidence	Bizzotto, 1983
Prototherium	genus	belongs to Dugongidae	implied	Carroll, 1988
Prototherium	genus	belongs to Halitheriinae	stated without evidence	Pilleri et al., 1989
Prototherium	genus	belongs to Halitheriinae	stated with evidence	Domning, 1996
Prototherium	genus	belongs to Sirenia	second hand	Sepkoski, 2002
Prototherium	genus	belongs to Dugongidae	stated with evidence	Voss, 2014
Prototherium	genus	belongs to Halitheriinae	stated with evidence	Balaguer and Alba, 2016
Prototherium	genus	belongs to Dugongidae	stated without evidence	Berta, 2017
Prototherium	genus	belongs to Halitheriinae	stated without evidence	Domning, 2018

Status (PBDB)

extinct

Taxon Size (PBDB)

First Recorded Appearance

48.6 - 38.0 Ma
Eocene

Last Recorded Appearance

33.9 - 23.0 Ma
Cenozoic

Environment

marine (based on Sirenia)

Motility

actively mobile (based on Osteichthyes)

Diet

herbivore (based on Dugongidae)

Reproduction

viviparous (based on Sirenia)

Taphonomy

phosphatic (based on Vertebrata)

Primary Reference (PBDB)

A. de Zigno. 1887. Quelques observations sur les Sireniens fossiles. Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de France 3(15):728-732

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototherium

Fossil Distribution

Subtaxa

Name	Status	Fossil Occurrences	Oldest	Youngest
Prototherium ausetanum ✝ species	accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB)	1	41.3 Ma Eocene	41.3 Ma Eocene
Prototherium intermedium ✝ species	accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB)	3	41.3 Ma Eocene	37.2 Ma Eocene
Halitherium veronense ✝ species	accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB)	7	48.6 Ma Eocene	33.9 Ma Oligocene

Synonymy List

Year	Name and Author
1887	Halitherium (Prototherium) de Zigno p. 731
1906	Mesosiren Abel p. 52
1906	Paraliosiren Abel p. 59
1919	Prototherium Abel p. 834
1941	Prototherium Kretzoi p. 155
1973	Prototherium Heal p. 153
1983	Prototherium Bizzotto
1988	Prototherium Carroll
1989	Prototherium Pilleri et al. p. 17

Year	Name and Author
1994	Prototherium Domning p. 189
1996	Prototherium Domning p. 388
2002	Prototherium Sepkoski, Jr.
2014	Prototherium Voss p. 91 figs. Figure 3
2016	Prototherium Balaguer and Alba
2017	Prototherium Berta p. 170
2017	Prototherium Voss and Hampe
2018	Prototherium Domning p. 857 figs. Fig. 1

References

de Zigno A. Quelques observations sur les Sireniens fossiles, Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de France 3 15, 728-732

Abel O. (1906) Die Milchmolaren der Sirenen, Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie 1906 2, 50-60

Abel O. (1919) Die Stämme der Wirbeltiere, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, Leipzig, 914 p.

Kretzoi M. (1941) Sirenavus hungaricus N. G. N. Sp., ein Neuer Prorastomide aus dem Mitteleozan (Lutetium) von Felsogallia in Ungarn, Annales Musei Nationalis Hungaricic Pars Mineralogica, Geologica et Palaeontologica 34, 146-156

Heal G. J. (1973) Contributions to the Study of Sirenian Evolution, 1-245

Bizzotto B. (1983) Prototherium intermedium n. sp. (Sirenia) dell'Eocene Superiore di Possagano e proposta di revisione sistematica del taxon Eotheroides Palmer 1899, Memorie de Scienze Geologiche 26, 95-116

Carroll R. L. (1988) , Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution, 1-698

Pilleri G., Biosca J., et al (1989) , The Tertiary Sirenia of Catalonia, 1-98

Domning D. P. (1996) Bibliography and Index of the Sirenia and Desmostylia, Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 80, 1-611

Sepkoski, Jr. J. J. (2002) A compendium of fossil marine animal genera, Bulletins of American Paleontology 363, 1-560

Voss M. (2014) On the invalidity of Halitherium schinzii Kaup, 1838 (Mammalia, Sirenia), with comments on systematic consequences, Zoosystematics and Evolution 90 1, 87-93 doi:10.3897/zse.90.7421

Balaguer J., Alba D. M. (2016) A new dugong species (Sirenia, Dugongidae) from the Eocene of Catalonia (NE Iberian Peninsula), Comptes Rendus Palevol doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2015.10.002

Berta A. (2017) , The Rise of Marine Mammals: 50 Million Years of Evolution, 1-198

Voss M., Hampe O. (2017) Evidence for two sympatric sirenian species (Mammalia, Tethytheria) in the early Oligocene of Central Europe, Journal of Paleontology 91 2, 337-367 doi:10.1017/jpa.2016.147

Nomenclator Zoologicus. A list of the names of genera and subgenera in zoology from the tenth edition of Linnaeus, 1758 to the end of 2004. Digitised by uBio from vols. 1-9 of Neave (ed.), 1939-1996 plus supplementary digital-only volume. http://ubio.org/NomenclatorZoologicus (as at 2006). - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera

Sepkoski, J. J., Jr. (2002). A compendium of fossil marine animal genera. Bulletins of American Paleontology. 363, 1-560. - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera

Bull. Soc. Géol. France, (3) 15 - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera

Domning, 2010 - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera

Data courtesy of: PBDB: The Paleobiology Database, Creative Commons CC-BY licenced. , GBIF: the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, various licences, iDigBio, various licences, and EOL: The Encyclopedia of Life (Open Data Public Domain). Because fossils are made of minerals too!

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