Meles meles

The European badger, also known as the Eurasian badger, is a species of badger in the family Mustelidae native to Europe and West Asia and parts of Central Asia. It is classified as least concern on the IUCN Red List due to its wide range and large, stable population size which is thought to be increasing in some regions. Several subspecies are recognised, with the nominate subspecies predominating in most of Europe. In the UK it is the only extant species, and is simply known as the "badger".

Meles meles

Charles J. Sharp · 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
European badgerPBDB
Sits inside
MelesPBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Meles
Life habit
semifossorialPBDB, for Meles
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 762 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 774 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 43 occurrencesPleistocene — about 38 of 43 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 5 of 43 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 14 occurrences774 ka11.7 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

43 occurrences of Meles meles 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

43 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

2 formations

Unterer Travertin — 50.97°N, 11.35°EGuxiangtun — 45.92°N, 127.40°E

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The named rock units Meles meles has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 41 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Meles meles and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Meles meles and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

442 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 43 sites for Meles meles, 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

30 references

Each of the 43 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. 18 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 Meles meles

Credit
Charles J. Sharp
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Meles meles · ummz:mammals:122594

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
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

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 itMeles through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)