Cynomys ludovicianus

The black-tailed prairie dog is a rodent of the family Sciuridae found in the Great Plains of North America from about the United States–Canada border to the United States–Mexico border. Unlike some other prairie dogs, these animals do not truly hibernate. The black-tailed prairie dog can be seen above ground in midwinter. A black-tailed prairie dog town in Texas was reported to cover 25,000 mi2 (64,000 km2) and included 400,000,000 individuals. Prior to habitat destruction, the species may have been the most abundant prairie dog in central North America. It was one of two prairie dogs described by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the journals and diaries of their expedition.

Cynomys ludovicianus

Christian Ursilva from København, Danmark · 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
Also called
black-tailed prairie dogPBDB
Sits inside
CynomysPBDB
Diet
granivore, frugivorePBDB, for Sciuridae
Life habit
semifossorialPBDB, for Cynomys
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Mass
15 gWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 81 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 210 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 1.4 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Pleistocene — about 25 of 25 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 25 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.3–1.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.1–1.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.0–950 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences950 ka–887 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences887 ka–823 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences823 ka–760 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences760 ka–697 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences697 ka–633 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences633 ka–570 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences570 ka–507 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences507 ka–443 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences443 ka–380 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences380 ka–317 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences317 ka–253 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences253 ka–190 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences190 ka–127 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences127 ka–63 ka Mya — about 7 occurrences63 ka–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences210 ka – 129 ka1.9 Mya0 Mya

25 occurrences of Cynomys ludovicianus 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

25 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

5 formations

Tule — 34.50°N, 101.70°WTule — 34.50°N, 101.30°WGood Creek — 34.00°N, 99.80°WMcPherson — 38.30°N, 97.60°WSeymour — 33.75°N, 99.50°WBeaumont — 29.66°N, 94.09°W

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The named rock units Cynomys ludovicianus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cynomys ludovicianus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Cynomys ludovicianus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

286 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 25 sites for Cynomys ludovicianus, 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

16 references

Each of the 25 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. 4 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 Cynomys ludovicianus

Credit
Christian Ursilva from København, Danmark
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
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
Cynomys ludovicianus · amnh:mammals:114522

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 itCynomys through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Ord 1815)