Atlantoxerus

The Barbary ground squirrel is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. It is monotypic within the genus Atlantoxerus. It is endemic to the Atlas mountains in Morocco and some parts in Algeria, and has been introduced into the Canary Islands. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, temperate grassland and rocky areas where it lives colonially in burrows. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.

Atlantoxerus

Chrumps · 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
Sits inside
XeriniPBDB
Diet
granivore, frugivorePBDB, for Sciuridae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Sciuridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 16.9 Mya to 5.09 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 3.55 Mya.

Miocene — about 26 of 29 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 29 occurrencesPliocene21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–10 Mya — about 1 occurrence10–9.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.6–9.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.0–8.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.4–7.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.8–7.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.2–6.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.6–6.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.0–5.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.4–4.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.8–4.2 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences4.2–3.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.6–3.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16.9 Mya5.09 Mya20.9 Mya3 Mya

29 occurrences of Atlantoxerus on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

29 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

Alfambra — 40.39°N, 2.60°WAlfambra — 40.35°N, 2.60°WSahabi — 30.00°N, 20.00°EBou Hanifia — 35.30°N, 0.10°WHofuf — 25.68°N, 49.48°EHalamagai — 46.97°N, 87.47°EAlhambra — 37.24°N, 3.61°WSuosuoquan — 46.31°N, 88.02°ELoh — 45.38°N, 101.51°EColombacci — 44.22°N, 11.77°EDetritic-Carbonated Unit of Subirats — 41.42°N, 1.81°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Atlantoxerus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Atlantoxerus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Atlantoxerus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

404 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 28 sites for Atlantoxerus, 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

22 references

Each of the 29 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. 10 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 Atlantoxerus

Credit
Chrumps
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Atlantoxerus getulus · ummz:mammals:120316

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 itXerini through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Major 1893