Scapanus

Scapanus is a genus of moles in the family Talpidae. They live in North America from west of the Rockies south to Baja California del Norte, and north to British Columbia, wherever conditions permit a mole population; that is to say, apart from the most sandy, rocky, or developed places. As they are one genus, they are very closely related, but as species, they rarely if ever interbreed successfully.

Scapanus

Scapanus_latimanus.jpg : Sarah Murray derivative work: WolfmanSF ( talk ) · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
ScalopiniPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Talpidae
Life habit
fossorialPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 9.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 9.4 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Oligocene — about 0 of 58 occurrencesMiocene — about 18 of 58 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 10 of 58 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 30 of 58 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 2 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 7 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 18 occurrences9.4 Mya129 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

58 occurrences of Scapanus 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

58 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

22 formations

Palm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°W"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WDrewsey — 42.70°N, 118.70°WAlkali Canyon — 45.72°N, 120.20°WAlkali Canyon — 45.84°N, 119.29°WDove Spring — 35.30°N, 118.50°WDove Spring — 35.37°N, 117.99°WJuntura — 43.60°N, 117.50°WChalk Butte — 43.60°N, 117.50°WGlenns Ferry — 42.80°N, 114.90°WMcKay — 45.50°N, 118.80°WStarlight — 42.80°N, 112.90°WThousand Creek — 41.10°N, 117.80°WBedrock Spring — 34.80°N, 117.00°WHorned Toad — 35.30°N, 118.50°WSan Diego — 32.90°N, 117.10°WTassajara — 37.81°N, 121.97°WTemecula Arkose — 33.90°N, 117.00°WRingold — 46.30°N, 119.10°WLa Habra — 33.60°N, 117.80°WPauba — 33.90°N, 117.00°WRiverbank — 38.60°N, 121.50°WPalm Springs — 32.42°N, 116.20°WMontezuma — 37.99°N, 121.71°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Scapanus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Scapanus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Scapanus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

489 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 55 sites for Scapanus, 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

20 references

Each of the 58 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. 8 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 Scapanus

Credit
Scapanus_latimanus.jpg : Sarah Murray derivative work: WolfmanSF ( talk )
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Scapanus townsendii · UF:Mammals:34748

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 itScalopini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Pomel 1848