Ceratogaulus

Ceratogaulus is an extinct genus of rodents, a member of the extinct fossorial (burrowing) rodent family Mylagaulidae. Ceratogaulus is one of two rodent genera with horns and is the smallest known horned mammal. Ceratogaulus lived in North America from the late Miocene to the early Pliocene epochs, 16.3 to 5.3 million years ago. Ceratogaulus have sometimes been nicknamed "horned gophers", though they are only distantly related to true gophers.

Ceratogaulus

Ryan Somma · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
MylagaulinaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Rodentia
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Rodentia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Length
30 cmWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 3.1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 12.5 Mya to 9.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 4.7 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 22 occurrencesMiocene — about 22 of 22 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 22 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–22 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 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 3 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences9.4–8.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.7–8.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.1–7.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.4–6.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.8–6.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.1–5.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.5–4.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.8–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12.5 Mya9.4 Mya23.5 Mya4.2 Mya

22 occurrences of Ceratogaulus 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

22 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

6 formations

Valentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.70°N, 100.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.80°N, 99.70°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.63°N, 100.05°WGoliad — 28.60°N, 97.70°WGoliad — 28.34°N, 97.96°WGoliad — 28.53°N, 97.74°WOgallala — 39.08°N, 99.77°WTesuque — 35.50°N, 106.20°WSnake Creek — 42.42°N, 103.72°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ceratogaulus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ceratogaulus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Ceratogaulus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

324 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Ceratogaulus, 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

9 references

Each of the 22 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. 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 content2

Picture of Ceratogaulus

Credit
Ryan Somma
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itMylagaulinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Matthew 1902