Onychomys

Grasshopper mice are rodents of the genus Onychomys, occurring in North America. They feed on insects and other arthropods.

Onychomys

ENERGY.GOV · 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
grasshopper mousePBDB
Sits inside
OnychomyiniPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Rodentia
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 4.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 4.7 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 9.4 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 3 of 61 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 15 of 61 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 42 of 61 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 61 occurrences9.6–9.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.2–8.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.9–8.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.6–8.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.3–7.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.9–7.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.6–7.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.9–6.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.6–6.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.3–5.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.9–5.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.6–5.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.3–5.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.0–4.6 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.6–4.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.3–4.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.6–3.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.3–3.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.3–2.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.6–1.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.3–990 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences990 ka–660 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences660 ka–330 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences330 ka–0 Mya — about 13 occurrences4.7 Mya11.7 ka9.9 Mya0 Mya

61 occurrences of Onychomys 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

61 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

St. David — 32.00°N, 110.20°WSt. David — 31.97°N, 110.30°WRexroad — 37.10°N, 100.90°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WKingsdown — 37.04°N, 100.50°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WCrooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WPalm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°W"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WMcPherson — 38.30°N, 97.60°WVerde — 34.77°N, 111.85°WGila Conglomerate — 32.69°N, 109.45°WTemecula Arkose — 33.90°N, 117.00°WBlanco — 33.70°N, 101.10°WLove — 31.50°N, 105.20°WSeymour — 33.80°N, 99.70°WGood Creek — 34.00°N, 99.80°WSappa — 40.20°N, 99.40°W

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The named rock units Onychomys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 28 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Onychomys and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Onychomys and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

601 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 58 sites for Onychomys, 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

41 references

Each of the 61 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. 29 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 Onychomys

Credit
ENERGY.GOV
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Onychomys torridus · UWBM:Mammalogy:UWBM:Mamm:37628

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itOnychomyini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Baird 1858