Chiropodomys
Chiropodomys is a genus of Old World rats and mice native to Southeast Asia and northeast India. They are tree-dwelling, very small mice, mostly found in tropical rainforest. In total six extant species have been identified, but only one of these, Chiropodomys gliroides, is common and widely distributed, and has been extensively studied.

CheongWeei Gan · CC BY 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- Also called
- pencil-tailed tree mousePBDB
- Sits inside
- MuridaePBDB
- Diet
- herbivore, insectivorePBDB, for Muridae
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Muridae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 645 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 774 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka.
8 occurrences of Chiropodomys 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
8 occurrences- Pleistocene100%
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.
Chiropodomys and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Chiropodomys and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
187 taxa- Hipposideros6 sites
- Crocidura5 sites
- Muridae5 sites
- Rattus5 sites
- Anura4 sites
- Chiroptera4 sites
- Gekkonidae4 sites
- Lacertilia4 sites
- Mammalia4 sites
- Pteropodidae4 sites
- Rhinolophus4 sites
- Rodentia4 sites
- Sciuridae4 sites
- Vespertilionidae4 sites
- Anourosorex3 sites
- Collocalia3 sites
- Collocalia esculenta3 sites
- Elapidae3 sites
- Felis3 sites
- Hapalomys3 sites
- Hystrix3 sites
- Leopoldamys3 sites
- Macaca fascicularis3 sites
- Niviventer3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Chiropodomys, 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
5 references- Late Quaternary terrestrial vertebrates from Palawan Islad, Philippines4
- First discovery of Pleistocene orangutan (Pongo sp.) fossils in Peninsular Malaysia: Biogeographic and paleoenvironmental implications1
- A newly discovered Gigantopithecus fauna from Sanhe Cave, Chongzuo, Guangxi, South China1
- Geochronology of Ailuropoda–Stegodon fauna and Gigantopithecus in Guangxi Province, southern China1
- A preliminary study of the early Pleistocene deposits and the mammalian fauna from the Renzi Cave, Fancheng, Anhui, China1
Each of the 8 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 Chiropodomys
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- CheongWeei Gan
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Chiropodomys gliroides · FMNH:Mammals:46730
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 itMuridae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Peters 1868