Martes

A marten is a weasel-like mammal in the genus Martes within the subfamily Guloninae, in the family Mustelidae. They have bushy tails and large paws with partially retractile claws. The fur varies from yellowish to dark brown, depending on the species; it is valued by animal trappers for the fur trade. Martens are slender, agile animals, which are adapted to living in the taiga, and inhabit coniferous and northern deciduous forests across the Northern Hemisphere.

Martes

Dani Kropivnik · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
martenPBDB
Sits inside
GuloninaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Mustelidae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 19 million years on record.

The record covers at least 20 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 127 occurrencesMiocene — about 53 of 127 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 127 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 60 of 127 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 4 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 5 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 3 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 6 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 7 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 54 occurrences20 Mya11.7 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

127 occurrences of Martes 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

127 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

24 formations

Juntura — 43.60°N, 117.50°WCromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°EAsh Hollow — 40.50°N, 100.50°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WOgallala — 39.08°N, 99.75°WRattlesnake — 44.50°N, 119.30°WZia — 35.70°N, 107.00°WQuiburis — 32.50°N, 110.60°WBanta Shut-In — 29.27°N, 103.05°WBig Sandy — 34.70°N, 113.40°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WXianshuihe — 43.65°N, 112.66°EUnterer Travertin — 50.97°N, 11.35°EOberer Travertin I — 50.97°N, 11.35°EDam — 25.98°N, 49.39°EKarbolia — 45.53°N, 28.44°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 47.92°N, 10.59°EMadison Valley — 45.93°N, 111.29°WCaliente — 34.30°N, 119.00°WEdelény — 48.39°N, 20.64°ECórcoles — 40.47°N, 2.68°WLefkon — 41.17°N, 23.50°ESables de l'Orleanais — 48.05°N, 1.89°EDetritic-Carbonated Unit of Subirats — 41.42°N, 1.81°E

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The named rock units Martes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 101 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Martes and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Martes and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,430 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 107 sites for Martes, 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

98 references

Each of the 127 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. 86 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 Martes

Credit
Dani Kropivnik
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Martes martes · zmb:mam:77869

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 itGuloninae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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