Oryctolagus

Searched as Cuniculus. The Paleobiology Database treats Oryctolagus as the accepted name.

A paca is a member of the genus Cuniculus of ground-dwelling, herbivorous rodents in South and Central America. It is the only genus in the family Cuniculidae. Pacas are large rodents with dots and stripes on their sides, short ears, and barely visible tails. Pacas are eaten by people in Belize, where they are known as "gibnut" and, having been served to Queen Elizabeth II, "the royal rat". In the Amazon basin they are known as "majás". In Guyanese English, it is known as labba from Lokono. In Trinidad they are known as lappe and are highly prized as game animals; the cooked meat being considered quite a delicacy among wildmeat enthusiasts.

Oryctolagus

Hans Hillewaert · 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
LeporinaePBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Leporidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Leporidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 5.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 105 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 9 of 105 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 82 of 105 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 13 of 105 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 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 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.1–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.9–4.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.4–4.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.0–3.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.6–3.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.2–2.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.8–2.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 7 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 8 occurrences1.6–1.2 Mya — about 7 occurrences1.2–809 ka Mya — about 7 occurrences809 ka–404 ka Mya — about 15 occurrences404 ka–0 Mya — about 48 occurrences5.333 Mya11.7 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

105 occurrences of Oryctolagus 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

105 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

4 formations

Valdeganga — 39.15°N, 1.67°WDursunlu — 38.28°N, 31.91°ESanta Maria di Ciciliano — 42.65°N, 12.49°EGuadix — 37.42°N, 3.17°W

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The named rock units Oryctolagus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 100 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Oryctolagus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Oryctolagus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

829 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 82 sites for Oryctolagus, 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

67 references

Each of the 105 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. 55 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 content3

Picture of Oryctolagus

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

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Oryctolagus cuniculus · l-cet:021

3D model

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

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 itLeporinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Meyer 1790