Marmota

Marmots are large ground squirrels in the genus Marmota, with 15 species living in Asia, Europe, and North America. These herbivores are active during the summer, when they can often be found in groups, but are not seen during the winter, when they hibernate underground. They are the heaviest and largest members of the squirrel family.

Marmota

Photography captured by Giles Laurent · 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
marmotPBDB
Sits inside
MarmotiniPBDB
Diet
granivore, frugivorePBDB, for Sciuridae
Life habit
semifossorialPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 4.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 4.7 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 9.4 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 4 of 118 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 118 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 96 of 118 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 16 of 118 occurrences9.6–9.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.2–8.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.9–8.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.6–8.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.3–7.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.9–7.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.6–7.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.9–6.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.6–6.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.3–5.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.9–5.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.6–5.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.3–5.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.0–4.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.6–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.3–2.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.6–1.3 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.3–990 ka Mya — about 7 occurrences990 ka–660 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences660 ka–330 ka Mya — about 10 occurrences330 ka–0 Mya — about 72 occurrences4.7 Mya11.7 ka9.9 Mya0 Mya

118 occurrences of Marmota 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

118 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

5 formations

Ogallala — 36.70°N, 101.40°WThousand Creek — 41.10°N, 117.80°WVerde — 34.50°N, 112.50°WCape Deceit — 66.60°N, 161.90°WDon Beds — 43.80°N, 79.30°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Marmota has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 113 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Marmota and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Marmota and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,245 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 118 sites for Marmota, 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

72 references

Each of the 118 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. 60 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 Marmota

Credit
Photography captured by Giles Laurent
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
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

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 itMarmotini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Frisch 1775