Spalacinae

The blind mole-rats, also known as the fossorial or subterranean mole rats, are a subfamily (Spalacinae) of rodents in the family Spalacidae, found in eastern Europe and western and central Asia. The hystricognath mole-rats of the family Bathyergidae are completely unrelated, but some other forms are also in the family Spalacidae. Zokors, root rats, and bamboo rats are spalacids also sometimes referred to as mole rats.

Spalacinae

Bassem18 at English Wikipedia · 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
blind molePBDB
Sits inside
MuridaePBDB
Diet
herbivore, insectivorePBDB, for Muridae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Muridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 33 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 37.71 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Eocene — about 1 of 89 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 89 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 11 of 89 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 14 of 89 occurrencesPleistocene — about 61 of 89 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences10–9.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.0–7.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.7–6.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.4–5.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.1–3.8 Mya — about 7 occurrences3.8–2.6 Mya — about 6 occurrences2.6–1.3 Mya — about 25 occurrences1.3–0 Mya — about 36 occurrences33.9 Mya129 ka38.5 Mya0 Mya

89 occurrences of Spalacinae 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

89 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

9 formations

Lefkon — 41.17°N, 23.50°EPlatanochori — 40.57°N, 23.47°EDursunlu — 38.28°N, 31.91°EKhapry — 47.24°N, 39.71°ESoma — 38.62°N, 27.42°EAntonios — 40.50°N, 23.00°ETuglu — 40.61°N, 33.63°EGonia — 40.37°N, 23.11°EMytilinii — 37.75°N, 26.89°E

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The named rock units Spalacinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 80 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Spalacinae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Spalacinae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

814 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 82 sites for Spalacinae, 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

45 references

Each of the 89 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. 33 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 content1

Picture of Spalacinae

Credit
Bassem18 at English Wikipedia
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Spalacinae was found in Sketchfab.

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 itMuridae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Thomas 1896