Heteromyidae

Heteromyidae is a family of rodents consisting of kangaroo rats, kangaroo mice, pocket mice and spiny pocket mice. Most heteromyids live in complex burrows within the deserts and grasslands of western North America, though species within the genus Heteromys are also found in forests and their range extends as far south as northern South America. They feed mostly on seeds and other plant parts, which they carry in their fur-lined cheek pouches to their burrows.

Heteromyidae

National Park Service · Public Domain · 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
CastorimorphiPBDB
Diet
granivore, browserPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 29 million years on record.

The record covers at least 29.5 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 31.8 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 57 of 921 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 485 of 921 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 113 of 921 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 247 of 921 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 1 occurrence30–29 Mya — about 3 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 9 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 9 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 9 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 9 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 9 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 10 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 12 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 12 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 11 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 16 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 51 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 52 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 64 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 64 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 64 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 40 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 21 occurrences11–9.7 Mya — about 21 occurrences9.7–8.7 Mya — about 16 occurrences8.7–7.6 Mya — about 13 occurrences7.6–6.5 Mya — about 13 occurrences6.5–5.4 Mya — about 13 occurrences5.4–4.3 Mya — about 27 occurrences4.3–3.2 Mya — about 54 occurrences3.2–2.2 Mya — about 57 occurrences2.2–1.1 Mya — about 75 occurrences1.1–0 Mya — about 167 occurrences29.5 Mya11.7 ka32.4 Mya0 Mya

921 occurrences of Heteromyidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

921 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

107 formations

Barstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°WBarstow — 35.06°N, 117.11°W"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WPalm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°WValentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WValentine — 42.49°N, 98.11°WValentine — 42.80°N, 99.70°WValentine — 42.81°N, 100.05°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 40.10°N, 98.50°WValentine — 42.60°N, 98.00°WRunningwater — 42.75°N, 102.02°WRunningwater — 42.49°N, 102.96°WRunningwater — 42.80°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.80°N, 100.80°WRunningwater — 42.45°N, 102.96°WRunningwater — 42.70°N, 102.10°WRunningwater — 42.37°N, 103.32°WSan Timoteo — 33.90°N, 117.00°WArikaree — 41.70°N, 103.10°WArikaree — 43.20°N, 108.20°WArikaree — 43.20°N, 107.10°WSespe — 34.30°N, 119.00°WSespe — 33.83°N, 117.71°WSespe — 33.78°N, 117.77°WSespe — 33.73°N, 117.72°WSespe — 33.59°N, 117.76°WSespe — 33.60°N, 117.61°WAsh Hollow — 42.39°N, 98.10°WAsh Hollow — 42.60°N, 98.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.70°N, 100.00°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 101.89°WAsh Hollow — 43.40°N, 100.60°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.63°N, 100.05°WAsh Hollow — 42.80°N, 99.70°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 105.10°WSt. David — 32.00°N, 110.20°WSt. David — 31.97°N, 110.30°WDove Spring — 35.30°N, 118.50°WDove Spring — 35.37°N, 117.99°WJohn Day — 44.90°N, 120.20°WJohn Day — 44.83°N, 119.74°WJohn Day — 44.74°N, 119.65°WJohn Day — 45.08°N, 119.87°WJohn Day — 44.55°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.79°N, 119.58°WKingsdown — 37.04°N, 100.50°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WCrowder — 34.80°N, 117.00°WVaqueros — 33.78°N, 117.75°WVaqueros — 33.75°N, 117.75°WSharps — 43.30°N, 102.50°WMadison Valley — 45.93°N, 111.29°WHepburn's Mesa — 45.80°N, 110.50°WEsmeralda — 38.25°N, 117.90°WEsmeralda — 37.96°N, 118.03°WColter — 43.90°N, 110.80°WRexroad — 37.10°N, 100.90°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WBlanco — 33.70°N, 101.10°WBatesland — 43.20°N, 101.80°WBatesland — 43.13°N, 101.87°WAlkali Canyon — 45.72°N, 120.20°WAlkali Canyon — 45.84°N, 119.29°W

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The named rock units Heteromyidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 83 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 186 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Heteromyidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Heteromyidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,633 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 508 sites for Heteromyidae, and this reads 240 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

206 references

Each of the 921 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. 194 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 Heteromyidae

Credit
National Park Service
Licence
Public Domain
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 itCastorimorphi through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1868