Cavia

Cavia is a genus in the subfamily Caviinae that contains the rodents commonly known as the guinea pigs or cavies. The best-known species in this genus is the domestic guinea pig, Cavia porcellus, a meat animal in South America and a common household pet outside that continent.

Cavia

Petra Karstedt (= PetraK ; www.Tiermotive.de) · CC BY-SA 2.0 de · 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
guinea pigPBDB
Sits inside
CaviidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Caviidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Caviidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 3.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.8 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 31 occurrencesPliocene — about 3 of 31 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 12 of 31 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 16 of 31 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.2–972 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 21 occurrences3.8 Mya11.7 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

31 occurrences of Cavia on record. 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

8 formations

Botucatu — 29.57°S, 51.63°WBotucatu — 29.77°S, 50.55°WBotucatu — 29.56°S, 51.40°WSopas — 30.43°S, 56.45°WSopas — 31.25°S, 57.00°WSopas — 32.05°S, 56.12°WTafí del Valle — 26.92°S, 65.70°WAndahuala — 27.29°S, 66.91°WSan Andres — 38.18°S, 57.67°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WChacra La Blanqueada — 38.36°S, 62.15°WTezanos Pinto — 32.07°S, 60.65°W

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The named rock units Cavia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

270 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Cavia, 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

20 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. 8 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 content1

Picture of Cavia

Credit
Petra Karstedt (= PetraK ; www.Tiermotive.de)
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0 de
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cavia 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 itCaviidae through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Pallas 1766