Murinae

The Old World rats and mice, part of the subfamily Murinae in the family Muridae, comprise at least 519 species. Members of this subfamily are called murines. In terms of species richness, this subfamily is larger than all mammal families except the Cricetidae and Muridae, and is larger than all mammal orders except the bats and the remainder of the rodents.

Murinae

Unknown author Unknown author (original) / Ilmari Karonen (editing) · Public Domain · 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
MuridaePBDB
Diet
herbivore, insectivorePBDB, for Muridae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Muridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 447 occurrencesMiocene — about 27 of 447 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 48 of 447 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 219 of 447 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–11 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 7 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 8 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 17 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 28 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 38 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 37 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 286 occurrences15.98 Mya11.7 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

447 occurrences of Murinae 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

447 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

Shungura — 5.08°N, 36.03°EShungura — 5.01°N, 36.00°ETatrot — 30.51°N, 77.26°ELower Manchar — 26.42°N, 67.83°EMakapansgat — 24.20°S, 28.95°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EKoobi Fora — 3.98°N, 36.32°EKoobi Fora — 4.27°N, 36.29°EKoobi Fora — 4.18°N, 36.42°EKoobi Fora — 3.59°N, 36.24°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.34°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 34.32°EKromdraai — 26.00°S, 27.75°EVogel River Series — 3.21°S, 35.21°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EHumbu — 2.33°S, 35.97°EVihowa — 30.08°N, 70.33°ESwartkrans — 26.02°S, 27.72°EAlfambra — 40.39°N, 2.61°WChinji — 32.93°N, 71.66°EChinji — 32.68°N, 72.37°EPinjor — 30.70°N, 76.88°EMaradah — 28.00°N, 20.50°EMaradah — 28.50°N, 20.00°EWyandotte — 18.77°S, 144.85°EChoremi — 37.38°N, 22.09°EKapthurin — 0.50°N, 36.00°EHadar — 11.10°N, 40.57°EC1/LR — 33.58°N, 7.65°WTomori — 24.79°N, 125.29°EHengchun Limestone — 21.97°N, 120.81°EMoorna — 34.12°S, 141.65°E

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The named rock units Murinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 355 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Murinae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Murinae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,148 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 285 sites for Murinae, and this reads 240 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

152 references

Each of the 447 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. 140 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 Murinae

Credit
Unknown author Unknown author (original) / Ilmari Karonen (editing)
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Murinae 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 itMuridae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.