Microcavia

Microcavia is a genus of rodents in the family Caviidae. They are unique within their family in that their premolar teeth do not grow and replace the original deciduous cheek teeth until after the animal is born; in other genera this occurs in the womb.

Microcavia

Melisa Nemecek · CC BY 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
Sits inside
CaviidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Caviidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Caviidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 3.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.8 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 24 occurrencesPliocene — about 7 of 24 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 14 of 24 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 3 of 24 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.3–3.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.2–972 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 10 occurrences3.8 Mya11.7 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

24 occurrences of Microcavia 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

24 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

10 formations

Lujan — 34.60°S, 59.15°WLujan — 38.75°S, 60.60°WUquía — 23.33°S, 65.33°WUquía — 23.24°S, 65.36°WVorohué — 38.03°S, 57.72°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WChapadmalal — 38.12°S, 57.70°WPuerto Belgrano — 38.98°S, 61.82°WSanta Vitória — 33.74°S, 53.37°WBrochero — 31.92°S, 64.57°WSopas — 31.25°S, 57.00°WSan Andres — 38.12°S, 57.70°W

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The named rock units Microcavia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Microcavia and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Microcavia and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

336 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Microcavia, 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

18 references

Each of the 24 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. 6 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 content1

Picture of Microcavia

Credit
Melisa Nemecek
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Microcavia was found in Sketchfab.

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 itCaviidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gervais and Ameghino 1880