Herpestes

Herpestes is a genus within the mongoose family Herpestidae. It is the type genus of the family, and comprises five extant species, each with several subspecies. Several species in the family are known as slender mongooses. Fossil remains of three prehistoric species were excavated in France, and described in 1853.

Herpestes

Uncredited · 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
HerpestidaePBDB
Diet
insectivore, carnivorePBDB, for Herpestidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 7 of 59 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 11 of 59 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 31 of 59 occurrencesPleistocene21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.8–9.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.1–8.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.4–7.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.7–7.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.0–6.3 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences6.3–5.6 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences5.6–4.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.9–4.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.2–3.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.5–2.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences2.8–2.1 Mya — about 7 occurrences2.1–1.4 Mya — about 6 occurrences1.4–698 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences698 ka–0 Mya — about 24 occurrences15.98 Mya11.7 ka20.9 Mya0 Mya

59 occurrences of Herpestes 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

59 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

13 formations

Vogel River Series — 3.22°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EKromdraai — 26.00°S, 27.75°EHadar — 11.13°N, 40.59°ESwartkrans — 26.02°S, 27.72°EC1/LR — 33.58°N, 7.65°WKapthurin — 0.50°N, 36.00°ELukeino — 0.50°N, 35.67°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 35.37°ENubia — 16.25°N, 33.75°EOlorgesailie — 1.57°S, 36.44°EAdu-Asa — 10.32°N, 40.25°ENakali — 1.18°N, 36.37°E

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The named rock units Herpestes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 36 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Herpestes and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Herpestes and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

930 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 55 sites for Herpestes, 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

48 references

Each of the 59 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. 36 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 content1

Picture of Herpestes

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Herpestes was found in Sketchfab.

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

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 itHerpestidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Illliger 1811