Microtus pennsylvanicus

The eastern meadow vole, sometimes called the field mouse or meadow mouse, is a North American vole found in eastern Canada and the United States. Its range extends farther south along the Atlantic coast.

Microtus pennsylvanicus

Chuck Homler d/b/a Focus On Wildlife · 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
meadow volePBDB
Sits inside
MicrotusPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Rodentia
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Microtus
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 198 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 210 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 86 occurrencesPleistocene — about 82 of 86 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 4 of 86 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 3 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 11 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 40 occurrences210 ka – 11.7 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

86 occurrences of Microtus pennsylvanicus 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

86 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

6 formations

Kingsdown — 37.05°N, 100.50°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WGood Creek — 34.00°N, 99.80°WMcPherson — 38.30°N, 97.60°WSappa — 41.20°N, 96.60°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WFloral — 52.20°N, 106.70°W

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The named rock units Microtus pennsylvanicus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 72 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Microtus pennsylvanicus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Microtus pennsylvanicus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

865 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 83 sites for Microtus pennsylvanicus, 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

51 references

Each of the 86 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. 39 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 Microtus pennsylvanicus

Credit
Chuck Homler d/b/a Focus On Wildlife
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
Microtus pennsylvanicus · YPM:VZ:YPM MAM 005218

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 itMicrotus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Ord 1815)