Thryonomys swinderianus

The greater cane rat, also known as the grasscutter, is one of two species of cane rats, a small family of African hystricognath rodents. It lives by reed-beds and riverbanks in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Thryonomys swinderianus

Thryonomys_swinderianus.jpg : rbairdpccam derivative work: Jacek555 · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
greater cane ratPBDB
Sits inside
ThryonomysPBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB, for Thryonomyidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Thryonomyidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 2.6 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pliocene — about 0 of 13 occurrencesPleistocene — about 4 of 13 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 9 of 13 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 10 occurrences3.08 Mya0 Mya

13 occurrences of Thryonomys swinderianus on record, most of them in the Holocene. 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

13 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.

Thryonomys swinderianus and its relatives

Holocene

Where Thryonomys swinderianus and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.

Found in the same rock

317 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Thryonomys swinderianus, 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

10 references

Each of the 13 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. 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 Thryonomys swinderianus

Credit
Thryonomys_swinderianus.jpg : rbairdpccam derivative work: Jacek555
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
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
Thryonomys swinderianus variegatus · AMNH:Mammals:M-54000

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 itThryonomys through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Temminck 1827)