Holmesina
Holmesina is an extinct genus of pampathere, a group of armadillo-like xenarthrans that were distantly related to extant armadillos. Like armadillos, and unlike the other extinct branch of megafaunal cingulates the glyptodonts, the shell was made up of flexible plates which allowed the animal to move more easily.
Xvazquez · 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
- PampatheriidaePBDB
- Diet
- omnivorePBDB, for Xenarthra
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Xenarthra
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 2.4 million years on record.
The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 0 Mya.
108 occurrences of Holmesina on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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
108 occurrences- Pliocene8%
- Pleistocene92%
- Holoceneunder 1%
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
22 formations
- Bermont Formation4
- Tamiami Formation3
- Waccamaw Formation3
- Chapala Formation2
- San Gregorio Formation2
- Tacubaya Formation1
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The named rock units Holmesina has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 77 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Holmesina and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Holmesina and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
1,117 taxa- Equus53 sites
- Odocoileus virginianus47 sites
- Dasypus bellus34 sites
- Hemiauchenia macrocephala29 sites
- Mammut americanum28 sites
- Paramylodon harlani24 sites
- Procyon lotor23 sites
- Mammuthus columbi22 sites
- Palaeolama mirifica22 sites
- Sylvilagus floridanus19 sites
- Tapirus19 sites
- Tapirus (Helicotapirus) veroensis19 sites
- Aenocyon dirus18 sites
- Geomys pinetis16 sites
- Lynx rufus16 sites
- Panthera onca16 sites
- Scalopus aquaticus16 sites
- Lepisosteus15 sites
- Neofiber alleni15 sites
- Podilymbus podiceps15 sites
- Alligator mississippiensis14 sites
- Meleagris gallopavo14 sites
- Sigmodon hispidus14 sites
- Terrapene carolina14 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 101 sites for Holmesina, 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
67 references- Synonymies and reidentifications of North American fossil mammals11
- Overview of the geology and vertebrate biochronology of the Leisey Shell Pit Local Fauna, Hillsborough County, Florida10
- Chronology of Florida Pleistocene mammals5
- An edentate from the Pleistocene of Texas5
- Late Pliocene (late Blancan) vertebrates from the St. Petersburg Times site, Pinellas County, Florida, with a brief review of Florida Blancan faunas4
- A new early Pleistocene tapir (Mammalia: Perissodactyla) from Florida, with a review of Blancan tapirs from around the state3
- Additions to the Pleistocene Mammal Faunas of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia3
- Cenozoic vertebrate biostratigraphy of South Carolina, U.S.A. and additions to the fauna2
- Diversity and preservation of Pleistocene tetrapods from caves of southwestern Bahia, Brazil2
- Pampatherium humboldtii (Lund, 1839) (Xenarthra, Cingulata) of the Southern Brazilian Quaternary: cranial anatomy and taxonomic remarks2
- A systematic reassessment and paleogeographic review of fossil Xenarthra from Peru2
- Quantitative and qualitative evolution in the giant armadillo Holmesina (Edentata: Pampatheriidae) in Florida2
Each of the 108 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. 55 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 content3
Picture of Holmesina
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Xvazquez
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
Photogrammetry
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Holmesina septentrionalis · UF:VP:9336
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Credit
- UIPaleoRepository
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Smithsonian Open Access was 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, “Holmesina”
- 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 itPampatheriidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Simpson 1930