Anchitheriomys

Anchitheriomys is an extinct member of the beaver family, Castoridae. It inhabited North America and Eurasia during the middle Miocene. The name of the genus comes from Anchitherium, an extinct genus of horses, and the Greek word for mouse, μῦς (mys), thus meaning "Anchitherium's mouse", because the fossils of both genera usually co-occur.

Anchitheriomys

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
Sits inside
CastoridaePBDB
Diet
browserPBDB, for Castoridae
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Castoridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 10 million years on record.

The record covers at least 16.3 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 30 occurrencesMiocene — about 29 of 30 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 30 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 30 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 4 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences11–9.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences9.9–9.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences9.2–8.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.5–7.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.1–6.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.4–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.2–3.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.5–2.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.8–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16.3 Mya5.333 Mya23.5 Mya2.1 Mya

30 occurrences of Anchitheriomys on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

30 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

9 formations

Valentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WFleming — 31.00°N, 93.67°WFleming — 30.70°N, 94.70°WFleming — 30.50°N, 95.00°WRunningwater — 42.80°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.20°N, 103.10°WOlcott — 42.40°N, 103.80°WVille — 50.90°N, 6.45°ECalvert — 39.20°N, 75.60°WEsmeralda — 38.25°N, 117.90°WHector — 34.80°N, 117.00°WMascall — 44.00°N, 120.13°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Anchitheriomys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Anchitheriomys and its relatives

Miocene

Where Anchitheriomys and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

811 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Anchitheriomys, 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

20 references

Each of the 30 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. 8 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 Anchitheriomys

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Anchitheriomys was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itCastoridae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Roger 1885