Rattus rattus

The black rat, also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus Rattus, in the subfamily Murinae. It is a generalist omnivore that can live on a wide variety of foods. It associates extensively with humans, and most populations are synanthropic. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is now found worldwide.

Rattus rattus

Davidvraju · CC0 · 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
black ratPBDB
Sits inside
RattusPBDB
Diet
herbivore, insectivorePBDB, for Muridae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Rattus
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 117 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 129 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 28 occurrencesPleistocene — about 9 of 28 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 19 of 28 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence103 ka–0 Mya — about 21 occurrences129 ka – 11.7 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

28 occurrences of Rattus rattus on record. 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

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

1 formation

Kapthurin — 0.50°N, 36.00°E

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The named rock units Rattus rattus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 27 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

595 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 28 sites for Rattus rattus, 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

22 references

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. 10 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 Rattus rattus

Credit
Davidvraju
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

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 itRattus through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)