Diatomys

Diatomys is an extinct rodent genus known from Miocene deposits in China, Japan, Pakistan, and Thailand. The fossil range is from the late Early Miocene to the Middle Miocene.

Diatomys

Jonathan Chen · 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
DiatomyidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Rodentia
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Rodentia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 18 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 23.04 Mya and 5.333 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Oligocene — about 0 of 14 occurrencesMiocene — about 14 of 14 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 14 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–15 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.8–9.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.2–8.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.6–8.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.0–7.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.3–6.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.7–6.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.1–5.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.5–4.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23.5 Mya4.8 Mya

14 occurrences of Diatomys 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

14 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

Lower Manchar — 26.42°N, 67.83°EXiacaowan — 33.45°N, 118.20°EVihowa — 30.08°N, 70.33°EShanwang — 36.52°N, 118.54°E

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The named rock units Diatomys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Diatomys and its relatives

Miocene

Where Diatomys and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

187 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Diatomys, 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

6 references

Each of the 14 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 content1

Picture of Diatomys

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

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itDiatomyidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Li 1974