Caviinae

Caviinae is a subfamily uniting all living members of the family Caviidae with the exception of the maras, capybaras, and Kerodon. The subfamily traditionally contained the guinea pig or cavy-like forms along with the cursorially adapted (running) Kerodon. Molecular results suggest the Caviinae as so defined would be paraphyletic and Kerodon is more closely related to maras and capybaras than to other caviines. This led Woods and Kilpatrick (2005) to unite Kerodon and capybaras into the subfamily Hydrochoerinae within the Caviidae. These studies also suggest Microcavia and Cavia are more closely related to one another than either is to Galea.

Caviinae

Kurre92 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
CaviidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Caviidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Caviidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 7.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 13 of 54 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 11 of 54 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 23 of 54 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 7 of 54 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 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 1 occurrence7.7–7.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.3–6.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.1–5.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.4–4.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.2–2.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.6–1.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.2–809 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences809 ka–404 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence404 ka–0 Mya — about 26 occurrences7.246 Mya11.7 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

54 occurrences of Caviinae 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

54 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

21 formations

Cerro Azul — 38.74°S, 62.21°WCerro Azul — 36.25°S, 65.51°WCerro Azul — 38.70°S, 62.26°WCerro Azul — 38.76°S, 62.16°WCerro Azul — 35.92°S, 64.87°WCerro Azul — 36.68°S, 64.18°WCerro Azul — 36.70°S, 64.28°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WMaimará — 23.62°S, 65.41°WNuapua — 20.75°S, 63.07°WNuapua — 20.87°S, 63.07°WBrochero — 31.92°S, 64.57°WBrochero — 32.69°S, 64.72°WYupoi — 28.60°S, 59.03°WAgua Blanca — 38.48°S, 61.80°WSanta Clara — 37.75°S, 57.42°WEpecuén — 37.22°S, 63.55°WTafí del Valle — 26.92°S, 65.70°WItuzaingo — 31.48°S, 60.23°WAndalhuala — 26.68°S, 66.03°WPebas — 7.36°S, 74.96°WLa Invernada — 33.24°S, 62.42°WSan Andres — 38.12°S, 57.70°WPampean — 38.20°S, 59.12°WChiquimil — 27.11°S, 66.83°WTouro Passo — 29.65°S, 56.87°WSopas — 32.05°S, 56.12°WDolores — 34.38°S, 57.88°WSuelo — 28.60°S, 59.03°W

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The named rock units Caviinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 19 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Caviinae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Caviinae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

714 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 44 sites for Caviinae, 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

38 references

Each of the 54 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. 26 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 Caviinae

Credit
Kurre92
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Caviinae 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 itCaviidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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