Caviomorpha

Searched as Caviomorpha indet.. The Paleobiology Database treats Caviomorpha as the accepted name.

Caviomorpha is the rodent parvorder that unites all New World hystricognaths. It is supported by both fossil and molecular evidence. The Caviomorpha was for a time considered to be a separate order outside the Rodentia, but is now accepted as a genuine part of the rodents. Caviomorphs include the extinct Heptaxodontidae, the extinct Josephoartigasia monesi and extant families of chinchilla rats, hutias, guinea pigs and the capybara, chinchillas and viscachas, tuco-tucos, agoutis, pacas, pacaranas, spiny rats, New World porcupines, coypu and octodonts.

Caviomorpha

Uncredited · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
caviomorphPBDB
Sits inside
HystricognathiPBDB
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 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Eocene — about 12 of 50 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 23 of 50 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 10 of 50 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 50 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 50 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 1 occurrence46–44 Mya — about 1 occurrence44–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–41 Mya — about 1 occurrence41–39 Mya — about 1 occurrence39–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 3 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 3 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 3 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 3 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 4 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 4 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 3 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 4 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–13 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–9.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences9.8–8.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences8.2–6.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences6.5–4.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.9–3.3 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences3.3–1.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.6–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences37.71 Mya129 ka49 Mya0 Mya

50 occurrences of Caviomorpha on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

50 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

15 formations

Pozo — 7.33°S, 74.95°WPozo — 7.34°S, 74.95°WPozo — 6.58°S, 76.28°WSanta Cruz — 50.28°S, 70.22°WSanta Cruz — 50.28°S, 70.28°WSanta Cruz — 50.16°S, 69.68°WChambira — 7.35°S, 74.95°WChambira — 7.32°S, 74.93°WSarmiento — 45.67°S, 68.67°WSarmiento — 45.23°S, 67.49°WCura-Mallín — 37.48°S, 71.23°WCura-Mallín — 37.65°S, 71.23°WSan Sebastian — 18.34°N, 67.00°WLares Limestone — 18.33°N, 66.95°WLetrero — 3.33°S, 79.05°WPebas — 7.36°S, 74.96°WTafna — 21.98°S, 65.90°WSolimões — 8.98°S, 72.72°WSan Gregorio — 11.30°N, 70.24°WCerro Boleadoras — 47.00°S, 71.62°WJuana Diaz — 18.02°N, 66.85°WYanigüa-Los Haitises — 18.91°N, 69.75°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Caviomorpha has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Caviomorpha and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Caviomorpha and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

707 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 59 sites for Caviomorpha, 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 50 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 Caviomorpha

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Caviomorpha 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 itHystricognathi through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Wood and Patterson 1955)