Heterocephalus

The naked mole-rat, also known as the sand puppy, is a burrowing rodent native to the Horn of Africa and parts of Kenya, notably in Somali regions. It is the only species in the genus Heterocephalus.

Heterocephalus

Kein keen · 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
naked mole-ratPBDB
Sits inside
BathyergidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Bathyergidae
Life habit
semifossorialPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 780 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 774 ka.

Miocene — about 0 of 14 occurrencesPliocene — about 8 of 14 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 6 of 14 occurrencesPleistocene5.5–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.4–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.4–3.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.2–3.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.1–2.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.9–2.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.7–2.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.0–830 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences830 ka–645 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.58 Mya1.8 Mya5.8 Mya274 ka

14 occurrences of Heterocephalus on record. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

3 formations

Vogel River Series — 3.23°S, 35.22°EVogel River Series — 3.01°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.25°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 34.32°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.34°EShungura — 5.08°N, 36.03°EShungura — 5.01°N, 36.00°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Heterocephalus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Found in the same rock

177 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Heterocephalus, 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 Heterocephalus

Credit
Kein keen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Heterocephalus 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 itBathyergidae through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rüppell 1842