Phiomyidae
The Phiomyidae are a family of prehistoric rodents from Africa and Eurasia. A 2011 study placed Gaudeamus in a new family, Gaudeamuridae.

Hesham M. Sallam1*, Erik R. Seiffert2, Elwyn L. Simons3 · CC BY 2.5 · 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
- HystricognathiPBDB
- Diet
- herbivorePBDB, for Rodentia
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Rodentia
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 21 million years on record.
The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 15.98 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 11.63 Mya.
10 occurrences of Phiomyidae on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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
10 occurrencesThese 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
5 formations
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The named rock units Phiomyidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Phiomyidae and its relatives
OligoceneWhere Phiomyidae and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.
Found in the same rock
159 taxa- Crocodylia4 sites
- Insectivora3 sites
- Testudines3 sites
- Actinopterygii2 sites
- Afrohyrax championi2 sites
- Apterodon gaudryi2 sites
- Aves2 sites
- Birkamys korai2 sites
- Burtoa sp.2 sites
- Carnivora2 sites
- Dicerorhinus2 sites
- Dorcatherium pigotti2 sites
- Gulella sp.2 sites
- Homorus sp.2 sites
- Limicolaria2 sites
- Limnopithecus legetet2 sites
- Mammalia2 sites
- Masrasector2 sites
- Masritherium aequatorialis2 sites
- Megapedetes2 sites
- Mubhammys atlanticus2 sites
- Neophiomys minutus2 sites
- Nonanomalurus parvus2 sites
- Notocricetodon2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Phiomyidae, 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
8 references- Earliest Oligocene hystricognathous rodents from the Atlantic margin of northwestern Saharan Africa (Dakhla, Morocco): systematic, paleobiogeographical, and paleoenvironmental implications2
- New Oligocene vertebrate localities from Northern Kenya (Turkana basin)2
- A new species of Moeritherium (Proboscidea, Mammalia) from the Eocene of Algeria: New perspectives on the ancestral morphotype of the genus1
- Small Rodents and a Lagomorph from the Early Miocene Bukwa Locality, Eastern Uganda1
- New Catarrhine fossils from Moroto II, Early Middle Miocene (ca 17.5 Ma) Uganda1
- Early Eocene Rodentia of Kyrgyzstan1
- New primate fossils from the Middle Miocene of Maboko Island, Kenya1
- The Tinderet Miocene sequence in Kenya1
Each of the 10 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. 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 Phiomyidae
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Hesham M. Sallam1*, Erik R. Seiffert2, Elwyn L. Simons3
- Licence
- CC BY 2.5
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Phiomyidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Phiomyidae”
- 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 itHystricognathi through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wood 1955