Sicista

Birch mice are small jumping rodents that resemble mice with long, tufted tails and very long hind legs, allowing for remarkable leaps. They are the only extant members of the family Sminthidae. They were formerly classified as part of the subfamily Sicistinae in the family Dipodidae alongside the jerboas and jumping mice. However, phylogenetic evidence supports all three of these belonging to distinct families, thus leaving only the jerboas in Dipodidae and promoting Sicistinae to its own family.

Sicista

AfroBrazilian · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
birch mousePBDB
Sits inside
ZapodidaePBDB
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 3.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 0 of 46 occurrencesPliocene — about 6 of 46 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 40 of 46 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 46 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.2–972 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.6 Mya129 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

46 occurrences of Sicista 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

46 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

2 formations

Platanochori — 40.57°N, 23.47°EChikoi — 51.03°N, 106.65°E

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The named rock units Sicista has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 44 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sicista and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Sicista and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

403 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 44 sites for Sicista, 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

15 references

Each of the 46 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. 3 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 content3

Picture of Sicista

Credit
AfroBrazilian
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Sicista betulina · AMNH:Mammals:M-206585

3D model

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

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 itZapodidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1827