Taxidea taxus

The American badger is a North American badger similar in appearance to the European badger, although not closely related. It is found in the western, central, and northeastern United States, northern Mexico, and south-central Canada to certain areas of southwestern British Columbia.

Taxidea taxus

Yathin S Krishnappa · 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
American badgerPBDB
Sits inside
TaxideaPBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Taxidea
Life habit
semifossorialPBDB, for Taxidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 2.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 45 occurrencesPliocene — about 5 of 45 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 40 of 45 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 45 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 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 0.4 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.4–1.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.2–972 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 13 occurrences2.58 Mya129 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

45 occurrences of Taxidea taxus 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

45 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

8 formations

Rexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WBallard — 37.20°N, 100.30°WPalm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSeymour — 33.80°N, 99.70°WTacubaya — 21.80°N, 102.30°WTurlock Lake — 37.06°N, 120.20°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WFloral — 50.80°N, 103.90°W

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The named rock units Taxidea taxus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 36 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Taxidea taxus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Taxidea taxus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

702 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 43 sites for Taxidea taxus, 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 45 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 content2

Picture of Taxidea taxus

Credit
Yathin S Krishnappa
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

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 itTaxidea through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Schreber 1778)