Chionomys nivalis
The European snow vole or snow vole is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It has dense, pale grey fur and a pale-coloured tail and can reach about 14 cm (5.5 in) long, with a tail which is 7 cm (2.8 in) long.

Uncredited · 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
- ChionomysPBDB
- 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 117 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 129 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 774 ka to 0 Mya.
6 occurrences of Chionomys nivalis 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
6 occurrences- Pleistocene83%
- Holocene17%
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.
Chionomys nivalis and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Chionomys nivalis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
145 taxa- Microtus5 sites
- Microtus arvalis5 sites
- Apodemus4 sites
- Lepus europaeus4 sites
- Apodemus mystacinus3 sites
- Apodemus sylvaticus3 sites
- Arvicola terrestris3 sites
- Canis lupus3 sites
- Cricetulus migratorius3 sites
- Glis glis3 sites
- Mesocricetus3 sites
- Ochotona3 sites
- Bos primigenius2 sites
- Capra ibex2 sites
- Capreolus capreolus2 sites
- Cervus elaphus2 sites
- Columba oenas2 sites
- Coturnix coturnix2 sites
- Crocuta crocuta2 sites
- Dama dama2 sites
- Dryomys nitedula2 sites
- Homo neanderthalensis2 sites
- Microtus guentheri2 sites
- Muscardinus avellanarius2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Chionomys nivalis, 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
5 references- The micromammals of the Quaternary deposits from Cave A, Loutra Almopias (Pella, Northern Greece): Stratigraphy-Taphonomy-Paleoenvironment2
- The Palaeolithic cave of Kalamakia (Mani Peninsula), Greece: new insights on the palaeoenvironment using microvertebrates and mesowear analysis of ruminant teeth1
- Plio-Pleistocene amphibians and reptiles from Central Turkey: new faunas and faunal records with comments on their biochronological position based on small mammals1
- Avian remains from new Upper Pleistocene and Holocene sites in the Spanish Pyrenees1
- Le gisement Pleistocene moyen et superieur d'Artenac (Saint-Mary, Charent): premier bilan interdisciplinaire1
Each of the 6 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 content2
Picture of Chionomys nivalis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- nobody named on the record
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Chionomys nivalis · KU:KUM:138871
Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itChionomys through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Martins 1842)