Dendromus
Mice in the genus Dendromus are commonly referred to as African climbing mice or tree mice, although these terms are often used to describe all members of the subfamily Dendromurinae. The genus is currently restricted to sub-Saharan Africa, but fossils classified in the genus have been found from Late Miocene deposits in Arabia and Europe.

No machine-readable author provided. Kwo~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY-SA 2.5 · 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
- African climbing micePBDB
- Sits inside
- DendromurinaePBDB
- 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 5.3 million years on record.
The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.
21 occurrences of Dendromus 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
21 occurrences- Miocene7%
- Pliocene34%
- Pleistocene35%
- Holocene24%
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
6 formations
- Makapansgat Formation3
- Vogel River Series Formation3
- Kromdraai Formation2
- Humbu Formation · Peninj Group2
- Kapthurin Formation1
- Varswater Formation1
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The named rock units Dendromus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Dendromus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Dendromus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
401 taxa- Epimys (Aethomys)13 sites
- Mus11 sites
- Otomys11 sites
- Dasymys9 sites
- Mystromys9 sites
- Steatomys9 sites
- Praomys8 sites
- Tatera8 sites
- Cryptomys hottentotus7 sites
- Eptesicus7 sites
- Graphiurus7 sites
- Hipparion7 sites
- Rhabdomys7 sites
- Rhinolophus7 sites
- Saccostomus7 sites
- Tragelaphus strepsiceros7 sites
- Aepyceros melampus6 sites
- Crocidura6 sites
- Elephantulus6 sites
- Elephantulus brachyrhynchus6 sites
- Malacothrix6 sites
- Suncus varilla6 sites
- Thallomys6 sites
- Acomys5 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Dendromus, 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
15 references- Laetoli: a Pliocene Site in Northern Tanzania3
- La faune des depots pleistocenes de Ouest du lac Natron (Tanzanie) interpretation biostratigraphique2
- Plio-Pleistocene fossil mammalian microfauna of southern Africa: a preliminary report including descriptions of two new fossil muroid genera (Mammalia: Rodentia)2
- Structure of Nylsrley Savanna2
- The Mammalian Fauna from the Middle and Later Stone Age (Later Pleistocene) Levels of Border Cave, Natal Province, South Africa2
- Holocene Paleoenvironmental Change in the Kenyan Central Rift Indicated by Micromammals from Enkapune Ya Muto Rockshelter1
- The Makapansgat australopithecine environment1
- Evolution and sedimentary character of lake deltas fed by ephemeral rivers in the Turkana Basin, southern Kenya1
- Les rongeurs de Salobrena (Sud de l'Espagne) et le probleme de la migration Messinienne1
- The Hunters of the Hunted? An Introduction to African Cave Taphonomy1
- Paleoenvironmental and Cultural Implications of Late Holocene Archaeological Faunas from the Orange Free State and North Central Cape Province, South Africa1
- The Pliocene fossil occurences in 'E' Quarry, Langebaanweg, South Africa1
Each of the 21 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. 3 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 Dendromus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- No machine-readable author provided. Kwo~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims).
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 2.5
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Credit
- AMNH Mammal Collections
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Dendromus insignus kivu · amnh:mammals:181028
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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Dendromus”
- 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 itDendromurinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Smith 1829