Myotis

The mouse-eared bats or myotises are a diverse and widespread genus (Myotis) of bats within the family Vespertilionidae. The noun "myotis" itself is a Neo-Latin construction, from the Greek "muós and "oûs", literally translating to "mouse-eared".

Myotis

Uncredited · CC BY-SA 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
ChiropteraPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Chiroptera
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Chiroptera
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Chiroptera

Time the record covers

At least 27 million years on record.

The record covers at least 27.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 0 of 288 occurrencesOligocene — about 4 of 288 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 26 of 288 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 28 of 288 occurrencesPleistocene — about 203 of 288 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 3 occurrences10–9.2 Mya — about 3 occurrences9.2–8.1 Mya — about 4 occurrences8.1–6.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.9–5.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.8–4.6 Mya — about 8 occurrences4.6–3.5 Mya — about 14 occurrences3.5–2.3 Mya — about 16 occurrences2.3–1.2 Mya — about 40 occurrences1.2–0 Mya — about 182 occurrences27.3 Mya11.7 ka34.6 Mya0 Mya

288 occurrences of Myotis 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

288 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

15 formations

Ash Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WKromdraai — 26.00°S, 27.75°EBorgloon — 50.82°N, 4.82°ESheep Creek — 42.15°N, 103.70°WValentine — 42.49°N, 98.11°WOgallala — 39.08°N, 99.75°WLaverne — 36.80°N, 100.50°WRattlesnake — 44.50°N, 119.30°WVerde — 34.50°N, 112.50°WHorse Spring — 35.70°N, 115.20°WWhite Narrows — 35.70°N, 115.20°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WQuiburis — 32.50°N, 110.60°WXiacaowan — 33.45°N, 118.20°EColombacci — 44.22°N, 11.77°E

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The named rock units Myotis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 270 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Myotis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Myotis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,807 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 172 sites for Myotis, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

111 references

Each of the 288 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. 99 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 Myotis

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Myotis austroriparius · nhmuk:zoology:1837.4.8.127

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itChiroptera through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kaup 1829