Zelotomys

Zelotomys is a genus of rodents in the subfamily Murinae, the Old World rats and mice. They are known commonly as the broad-headed mice. They are native to Africa. There are two species.

Zelotomys

Pascal Parent · 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
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 most 3.6 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 3.6 Mya and 11.7 ka, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pliocene — about 1 of 8 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 7 of 8 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 8 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.1–957 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences957 ka–820 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences137 ka–0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1 Mya0 Mya

8 occurrences of Zelotomys 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

8 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

2 formations

Olduvai — 2.98°S, 34.32°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.34°EKromdraai — 26.00°S, 27.75°E

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The named rock units Zelotomys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Zelotomys and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Zelotomys and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

166 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Zelotomys, 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

6 references

Each of the 8 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 content1

Picture of Zelotomys

Credit
Pascal Parent
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Zelotomys 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. Osgood 1910