Sigmodon

A cotton rat is any member of the rodent genus Sigmodon. Their name derives from their damaging effects on cotton as well as other plantation crops, such as sugarcane, corn, peanut and rice. Cotton rats have small ears and dark coats, and are found in North and South America. Members of this genus are distributed in the Southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America, and South American countries of: Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Guyana, and Suriname. Many of the species are found in Mexico.

Sigmodon

James Gathany · Public Domain · 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
cotton ratPBDB
Sits inside
SigmodontiniPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Rodentia
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 4.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 4.7 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 9.4 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 2 of 208 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 64 of 208 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 139 of 208 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 4 of 208 occurrences9.6–9.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.2–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–8.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.3–7.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.9–7.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.6–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.6–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.3–5.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.0–4.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.6–4.3 Mya — about 10 occurrences4.3–4.0 Mya — about 10 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 10 occurrences3.6–3.3 Mya — about 10 occurrences3.3–3.0 Mya — about 10 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 10 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 11 occurrences2.3–2.0 Mya — about 11 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 11 occurrences1.6–1.3 Mya — about 12 occurrences1.3–990 ka Mya — about 16 occurrences990 ka–660 ka Mya — about 15 occurrences660 ka–330 ka Mya — about 15 occurrences330 ka–0 Mya — about 54 occurrences4.7 Mya11.7 ka9.9 Mya0 Mya

208 occurrences of Sigmodon 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

208 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

25 formations

Palm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°W"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WSt. David — 32.00°N, 110.20°WSt. David — 31.97°N, 110.30°WSan Timoteo — 33.90°N, 117.00°WGila Conglomerate — 32.84°N, 110.00°WGila Conglomerate — 32.58°N, 109.48°WGila Conglomerate — 32.90°N, 109.10°WGila Conglomerate — 32.70°N, 109.10°WGila Conglomerate — 32.69°N, 109.45°WVerde — 34.50°N, 112.50°WVerde — 34.77°N, 111.85°WVerde — 34.77°N, 112.05°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WTemecula Arkose — 33.90°N, 117.00°WBlanco — 33.70°N, 101.10°WCrooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WCrooked Creek — 39.00°N, 98.20°WCaloosahatchee — 27.04°N, 81.82°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WWicomico — 29.42°N, 82.22°WTulare — 35.30°N, 118.50°WTamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WBallard — 37.20°N, 100.30°WFort Hancock — 31.50°N, 105.20°WLove — 31.50°N, 105.20°WImperial — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSeymour — 33.80°N, 99.70°WLa Habra — 33.60°N, 117.80°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WTecopa Lake Beds — 36.00°N, 116.25°WShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Sigmodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. One further formation holds fewer occurrences and is not listed. 91 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sigmodon and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Sigmodon and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,627 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 186 sites for Sigmodon, 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

84 references

Each of the 208 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. 72 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 Sigmodon

Credit
James Gathany
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Sigmodon hispidus exsputus · YPM:VZ:YPM MAM 005706

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

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 itSigmodontini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Say and Ord 1825