Dicrostonyx

Dicrostonyx is a genus of rodent in the family Cricetidae. Its members are known as collared lemmings or varying lemmings. The genus is restricted to high latitudes in the northern hemisphere; one species, the Arctic lemming, has a broad distribution in northern Russia, while the rest are mostly or entirely North American in distribution. They are the only rodents that turn completely white in winter.

Dicrostonyx

Imperatorskaia akademīia nauk (Russia); Middendorff, A. Th. von · Public Domain · 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
lemmingPBDB
Sits inside
DicrostonychiniPBDB
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 198 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 210 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 43 occurrencesPleistocene — about 28 of 43 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 15 of 43 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 23 occurrences210 ka – 11.7 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

43 occurrences of Dicrostonyx 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

43 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.

Dicrostonyx and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Dicrostonyx and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

746 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 43 sites for Dicrostonyx, 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

29 references

Each of the 43 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. 17 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 Dicrostonyx

Credit
Imperatorskaia akademīia nauk (Russia); Middendorff, A. Th. von
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Dicrostonyx 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 itDicrostonychini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gloger 1841