Leptictis Skull (BU 851)

Leptictis dakotensis

Insectivore

Middle Oligocene (Orellan)

Brule Formation

White River Badlands

Custer County, South Dakota USA

Leptictis, an Oligocene animal from the White River sediments of the Dakotas, was a small, weasel-like animal with a skull approximately 2 inches long, and a body length of about 12 inches. Leptictidae has been classified as Insectovora according to Novacek (Carrol, 1988). There are no living descendants of this relatively short lived group, although they were quite diverse throughout the early Cenozoic of North America.