Sciurus

The genus Sciurus contains most of the common, bushy-tailed squirrels in North America, Europe, temperate Asia, Central America and South America.

Sciurus

Rhododendrites · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
Also called
squirrelPBDB
Sits inside
SciuriniPBDB
Diet
granivore, frugivorePBDB, for Sciuridae
Life habit
arborealPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 1 of 139 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 5 of 139 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 17 of 139 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 12 of 139 occurrencesPleistocene — about 86 of 139 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 1 occurrence22–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–9.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.8–8.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.4–7.0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.0–5.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.6–4.2 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.2–2.8 Mya — about 8 occurrences2.8–1.4 Mya — about 17 occurrences1.4–0 Mya — about 88 occurrences37.71 Mya11.7 ka41.9 Mya0 Mya

139 occurrences of Sciurus 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

139 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

12 formations

facies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°EWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WXiacaowan — 33.45°N, 118.20°EReuver clay — 50.92°N, 6.82°EReuver clay — 50.90°N, 6.45°ECaloosahatchee — 27.04°N, 81.82°WLower Freshwater Molasse — 48.37°N, 9.87°ETruckee — 39.56°N, 119.11°WForest Bed — 52.49°N, 1.53°ECromer Forest Bed — 51.64°N, 0.80°EShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°WChoremi — 37.38°N, 22.09°EPawnee Creek — 40.90°N, 103.28°W

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The named rock units Sciurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 122 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sciurus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Sciurus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,942 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 131 sites for Sciurus, 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

83 references

Each of the 139 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. 71 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 Sciurus

Credit
Rhododendrites
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itSciurini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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