Akodon

Akodon is a genus consisting of South American grass mice. They mostly occur south of the Amazon Basin and along the Andes north to Venezuela, but are absent from much of the basin itself, the far south of the continent, and the lowlands west of the Andes. Akodon is one of the most species-rich genera of Neotropical rodents. Species of Akodon are known to inhabit a variety of habitats from tropical and tropical moist forests to altiplano and desert. Fossils are known from the late Pliocene onwards.

Akodon

Enrique Manuel González González · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
akodontPBDB
Sits inside
AkodontiniPBDB
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 2.9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.8 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 6 of 31 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 19 of 31 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 6 of 31 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.3–3.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.2–3.0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.9–2.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.7–2.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.6–2.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.3–1.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.0–860 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences860 ka–717 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences717 ka–573 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence573 ka–430 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence430 ka–287 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence287 ka–143 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences143 ka–0 Mya — about 16 occurrences3 Mya11.7 ka4.3 Mya0 Mya

31 occurrences of Akodon 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

31 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

10 formations

Vorohué — 38.12°S, 57.70°WBotucatu — 29.56°S, 51.40°WAgua Blanca — 38.48°S, 61.80°WSanta Clara — 37.75°S, 57.42°WTafí del Valle — 26.92°S, 65.70°WBrochero — 31.79°S, 65.02°WUquía — 23.24°S, 65.36°WBarranca de los Lobos — 38.12°S, 57.70°WSan Andres — 38.12°S, 57.70°WCura Brochero — 31.78°S, 64.99°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Akodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 19 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Akodon and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Akodon and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

241 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Akodon, 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

21 references

Each of the 31 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. 9 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 Akodon

Credit
Enrique Manuel González González
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
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
Akodon aerosus · nhmuk:zoo:54580

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 itAkodontini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Meyen 1833