Synaptomys

Synaptomys is a genus of North American lemmings. These animals live in wet forested and open areas. They are small, cylindrical rodents with large heads and short ears, legs, and tails. They eat green vegetation such as grasses and sedges. They are often found in colonies.

Synaptomys

NPS · 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
Sits inside
CricetidaePBDB
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 2.1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.245 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 2 of 75 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 72 of 75 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 75 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.0–867 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences173 ka–0 Mya — about 52 occurrences2.245 Mya129 ka5.2 Mya0 Mya

75 occurrences of Synaptomys 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

75 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

5 formations

Kingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WShooting Iron — 43.90°N, 110.80°WGood Creek — 34.00°N, 99.80°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°W

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The named rock units Synaptomys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 67 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Synaptomys and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Synaptomys and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

902 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 71 sites for Synaptomys, 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

38 references

Each of the 75 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. 26 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 Synaptomys

Credit
NPS
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Synaptomys 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 itCricetidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Baird 1858