Neofiber alleni
The round-tailed muskrat is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae, sometimes called the Florida water rat. The species is the only extant member of the genus Neofiber. It is found only in the Southeastern United States, where its natural habitat is swamps.

Uncredited · 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- Also called
- round-tailed muskratPBDB
- Sits inside
- NeofiberPBDB
- Diet
- herbivorePBDB, for Rodentia
- Life habit
- amphibiousPBDB, for Neofiber
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 81 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 210 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka.
28 occurrences of Neofiber alleni 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
28 occurrences- Pleistocene100%
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
4 formations
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Neofiber alleni has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 23 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Neofiber alleni and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Neofiber alleni and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
646 taxa- Equus23 sites
- Odocoileus virginianus23 sites
- Dasypus bellus20 sites
- Oryzomys palustris18 sites
- Sigmodon hispidus17 sites
- Sylvilagus floridanus16 sites
- Aenocyon dirus15 sites
- Holmesina septentrionalis15 sites
- Neotoma floridana15 sites
- Procyon lotor15 sites
- Tapirus (Helicotapirus) veroensis15 sites
- Didelphis virginiana14 sites
- Geomys pinetis14 sites
- Scalopus aquaticus14 sites
- Synaptomys australis14 sites
- Lynx rufus13 sites
- Mammut americanum13 sites
- Microtus pinetorum12 sites
- Spilogale putorius12 sites
- Terrapene carolina12 sites
- Gopherus polyphemus11 sites
- Peromyscus gossypinus11 sites
- Palaeolama mirifica10 sites
- Panthera onca10 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 28 sites for Neofiber alleni, 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- Chronology of Florida Pleistocene mammals9
- Additions to the Pleistocene Mammal Faunas of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia2
- Historical Biogeography of Florida Pleistocene Mammals2
- Pleistocene Rodents from Southeast Georgia1
- Vertebrate Paleontology1
- Late Rancholabrean mammals from south- ernmost Florida, and the Neotropical influence in Florida Pleistocene faunas1
- Paleontology and historic field trip of the John Guilday Cave Preserve (Trout Rock)1
- Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) vertebrate faunas from coastal Georgia1
- Middle Pleistocene (early Rancholabrean) vertebrates and associated marine and non-marine invertebrates from Oldsmar, Pinnellas County, Florida1
- Taphonomy of a late Pleistocene carnivore den, Dade County, Florida1
- Fossil mammals from the Coleman IIA fauna, Sumter County1
- Late Pleistocene mammals from the Devil's Den Fauna, Levy County1
Each of the 28 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 content2
Picture of Neofiber alleni
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- nobody named on the record
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Neofiber alleni · ummz:mammals:83575
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 itNeofiber through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. True 1884