Galemys
Galemys is a genus of mole containing the living Pyrenean desman (Galemys pyrenaicus) and several fossil species.

David Perez · CC BY 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- Also called
- Pyrenean desmanPBDB
- Sits inside
- DesmaninaePBDB
- Diet
- insectivorePBDB, for Talpidae
- Life habit
- amphibiousPBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 1.7 million years on record.
The record covers at least 3.55 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka.
18 occurrences of Galemys on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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
18 occurrences- Pliocene58%
- Pleistocene42%
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
1 formation
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The named rock units Galemys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Galemys and its relatives
PlioceneWhere Galemys and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.
Found in the same rock
362 taxa- Mimomys13 sites
- Beremendia fissidens9 sites
- Apodemus7 sites
- Sciurus7 sites
- Blarinoides mariae6 sites
- Ursus6 sites
- Blackia5 sites
- Castor fiber5 sites
- Deinsdorfia5 sites
- Erinaceus5 sites
- Lacerta5 sites
- Sorex5 sites
- Sorex minutus5 sites
- Stephanorhinus etruscus5 sites
- Bison4 sites
- Coluber viridiflavus4 sites
- Dolomys4 sites
- Equus4 sites
- Mustela palermina4 sites
- Myotis4 sites
- Petenyia hungarica4 sites
- Pliomys4 sites
- Prospalax4 sites
- Pseudopus pannonicus4 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Galemys, 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
15 references- Biochronological implications of the Arvicolidae (Rodentia, Mammalia) from the Lower Pleistocene hominid-bearing level of Trinchera Dolina 6 (TD6, Atapuerca, Spain)2
- A review of fossil and recent Desmaninae (Talpidae, Insectivora)2
- The Pliocene and Pleistocene Insectivores (Mammalia) of Poland I. Erinaceidae and Desmaninae2
- The Kor & Bot collection revisited, with a biostratigraphic interpretation of the Early Pleistocene Oosterschelde Fauna (Oosterschelde Estuary, the Netherlands)1
- A New Species of Water Vole from the Early Pleistocene of Southern Europe1
- Biostratigraphy and paleoecology of continental Tertiary vertebrate faunas in the Lower Rhine Embayment (NW-Germany)1
- Insectivora (Mammalia: Soricidae, Talpidae) from the Late Pliocene of Frechen, Germany1
- Le gisement pleistocene de Morgadinho, en Algarve1
- Insectivores pliocènes du sud de la France (Languedoc-Roussillon) et du nord-est de l'Espagne.1
- Pleistocene vertebrate faunas of Hungary1
- Pliocene and Pleistocene mammalian biostratigraphy in southeastern Transylvania (Romania)1
- Succession des Mammiferes Plio-Pleistocenes dans le Bassin Dacique (Roumanie)1
Each of the 18 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. 3 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 content2
Picture of Galemys
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- David Perez
- Licence
- CC BY 3.0
- 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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Galemys”
- 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 itDesmaninae through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kaup 1829