Abrocomidae

Chinchilla rats or chinchillones are rodents of the family Abrocomidae. This family has few members compared to most rodent families, with only nine known living species. They resemble chinchillas in appearance, with a similar soft fur and silvery-grey color, but have a body structure more like a short-tailed rat. They are social, tunnel-dwelling animals, and live in the Andes Mountains of South America. They are probably herbivorous, although this is not clear.

Abrocomidae

The zoology of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle · Public Domain · 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
Also called
chinchilla ratPBDB
Sits inside
OctodontoideaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 5.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 19 of 31 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 8 of 31 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 4 of 31 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 31 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.5–8.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.1–7.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.1–5.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences4.4–4.0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.2–2.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.8–2.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences404 ka–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.333 Mya129 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

31 occurrences of Abrocomidae on record. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

31 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

12 formations

Cerro Azul — 36.25°S, 65.51°WCerro Azul — 35.92°S, 64.87°WCerro Azul — 36.70°S, 64.28°WCerro Azul — 37.73°S, 63.53°WCerro Azul — 36.84°S, 65.28°WCerro Azul — 36.22°S, 65.06°WCerro Azul — 37.02°S, 64.51°WChiquimil — 26.80°S, 66.07°WChiquimil — 27.22°S, 66.93°WChiquimil — 27.11°S, 66.83°WSan Andres — 38.18°S, 57.65°WSan Andres — 38.12°S, 57.70°WItuzaingo — 31.48°S, 60.23°WToro Negro — 28.69°S, 68.31°WLa Huertita — 34.91°S, 68.50°WAndalhuala — 27.22°S, 66.93°WLaguna de Tagua Tagua — 34.50°S, 71.17°WMuyu Huasi — 19.04°S, 65.26°WEpecuén — 37.22°S, 63.55°WPalo Pintado — 25.37°S, 65.92°WRío de los Pozos — 33.30°S, 69.07°W

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The named rock units Abrocomidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

391 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 25 sites for Abrocomidae, 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

17 references

Each of the 31 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. 5 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 content1

Picture of Abrocomidae

Credit
The zoology of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Abrocomidae was found in Sketchfab.

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 itOctodontoidea through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Miller and Gidley 1918