Arvicolinae

The Arvicolinae are a subfamily of rodents that includes the voles, lemmings, and muskrats. They are most closely related to the other subfamilies in the Cricetidae. Some authorities place the subfamily Arvicolinae in the family Muridae along with all other members of the superfamily Muroidea. Some refer to the subfamily as the Microtinae or rank the taxon as a full family, the Arvicolidae.

Arvicolinae

NPS · 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
volePBDB
Sits inside
CricetidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Rodentia
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Rodentia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 4.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 4.7 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 2278 occurrencesMiocene — about 4 of 2278 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 311 of 2278 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 1895 of 2278 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 28 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 83 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 109 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 171 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 266 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 365 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 1251 occurrences4.7 Mya11.7 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

2,278 occurrences of Arvicolinae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

2,278 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

74 formations

Glenns Ferry — 43.60°N, 116.80°WGlenns Ferry — 42.82°N, 114.94°WGlenns Ferry — 43.00°N, 118.00°WGlenns Ferry — 43.00°N, 115.70°WGlenns Ferry — 42.77°N, 114.96°W"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WAlamosa — 37.37°N, 105.75°WKingsdown — 37.05°N, 100.50°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WCromer Forest Bed — 52.46°N, 1.73°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.42°N, 1.72°ECromer Forest Bed — 51.64°N, 0.80°ERexroad — 37.10°N, 100.90°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WCrooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WCrooked Creek — 39.00°N, 98.20°WSappa — 41.20°N, 96.60°WSappa — 39.80°N, 98.10°WSappa — 40.20°N, 99.40°WKhapry — 47.24°N, 39.71°ETule — 34.50°N, 101.70°WTule — 34.50°N, 101.30°WBaza — 37.72°N, 2.47°WSan Timoteo — 33.90°N, 117.00°WMcPherson — 38.30°N, 97.60°WPauba — 33.90°N, 117.00°WChoremi — 37.38°N, 22.09°EShooting Iron — 43.90°N, 110.80°WFloral — 52.20°N, 106.70°WAlfambra — 40.38°N, 2.54°WAlfambra — 40.52°N, 2.72°WPorsuk — 39.36°N, 31.91°EPorsuk — 39.34°N, 31.92°ERingold — 47.00°N, 118.50°WRingold — 46.30°N, 119.10°WPalm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°WWroxham — 52.63°N, 1.30°EFratesti — 44.17°N, 24.53°EChikoi — 51.03°N, 106.65°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Arvicolinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 50 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 1,923 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Arvicolinae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Arvicolinae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,213 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 789 sites for Arvicolinae, and this reads 240 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

419 references

Each of the 2,278 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. 407 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 Arvicolinae

Credit
NPS
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Arvicolinae 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 itCricetidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gray 1821)