Megascapheus bottae

Megascapheus Elliot, 1903, a relative of Megascapheus bottae — not Megascapheus bottae itself

Not Megascapheus bottae. This is Megascapheus Elliot, 1903, a relative — both are Geomyidae.

usernameforinaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · via GBIF. 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
Botta's pocket gopherPBDB
Sits inside
MegascapheusPBDB
Diet
browserPBDB, for Geomyidae
Life habit
fossorialPBDB, for Geomyidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 1.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 1 of 45 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 38 of 45 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 6 of 45 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.2 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 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.0–867 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences173 ka–0 Mya — about 17 occurrences1.4 Mya11.7 ka5.2 Mya0 Mya

45 occurrences of Megascapheus bottae 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

45 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

7 formations

"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WPauba — 33.90°N, 117.00°WPalos Verdes Sand — 34.00°N, 118.20°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.76°N, 118.29°WTemecula Arkose — 33.90°N, 117.00°WLa Habra — 33.60°N, 117.80°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WRiverbank — 38.60°N, 121.50°W

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The named rock units Megascapheus bottae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Megascapheus bottae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Megascapheus bottae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

405 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 45 sites for Megascapheus bottae, 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

13 references

Each of the 45 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. 1 further reference is 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 Megascapheus Elliot, 1903

Source
GBIF
Credit
usernameforinaturalist
Licence
CC BY-NC 4.0
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMegascapheus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Eydoux and Gervais 1836)