Dipodidae

Jerboas are the members of the family Dipodidae. They are nocturnal hopping desert rodents found throughout North Africa and Asia. They tend to live in hot deserts.

Dipodidae

Marius Burger · CC0 · 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
DipodoideaPBDB
Diet
herbivore, insectivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
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 56 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Paleocene — about 0 of 395 occurrencesEocene — about 16 of 395 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 264 of 395 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 76 of 395 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 20 of 395 occurrencesPleistocene — about 20 of 395 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 5 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 7 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 29 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 34 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 34 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 45 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 65 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 60 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 13 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 15 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 16 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 13 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 5 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 11 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 18 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 11 occurrences37.71 Mya129 ka57 Mya0 Mya

395 occurrences of Dipodidae 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

395 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

34 formations

Hsanda Gol — 45.29°N, 101.63°EHsanda Gol — 45.26°N, 101.72°EHsanda Gol — 45.42°N, 101.26°EHsanda Gol — 45.49°N, 101.20°EHsanda Gol — 45.30°N, 102.08°EHsanda Gol — 45.45°N, 101.37°EHsanda Gol — 45.27°N, 101.76°EHsanda Gol — 45.39°N, 101.24°ELoh — 45.46°N, 101.20°ELoh — 45.26°N, 101.72°ELoh — 45.54°N, 101.01°ELoh — 45.54°N, 101.14°ELoh — 45.34°N, 101.83°ELoh — 45.38°N, 101.51°ELoh — 45.52°N, 101.31°ELoh — 45.31°N, 101.63°ELoh — 45.38°N, 101.10°EXianshuihe — 35.15°N, 105.11°EXianshuihe — 36.46°N, 104.16°EUlantatal — 39.20°N, 105.57°ESuosuoquan — 46.31°N, 88.02°ESuosuoquan — 46.66°N, 88.34°EPaoniuquan — 40.50°N, 94.70°EUlan Gocho — 42.63°N, 111.35°EAksyir — 47.83°N, 83.79°EShungura — 5.08°N, 36.03°EShungura — 5.01°N, 36.00°EChetougou — 36.85°N, 102.05°EChetougou — 36.34°N, 102.82°EChetougou — 36.67°N, 101.52°EKansu — 36.73°N, 103.40°EHouldjin — 42.00°N, 112.00°EKeziletuogayi — 47.83°N, 86.68°ETiejianggou — 40.50°N, 94.70°ETiejianggou — 39.83°N, 97.57°ETiejianggou — 39.49°N, 94.73°EAral — 50.30°N, 57.18°EQingshuiying — 36.60°N, 105.69°EDursunlu — 38.28°N, 31.91°EDam — 25.98°N, 49.39°ETieersihabahe — 46.60°N, 87.73°EBahe — 34.15°N, 109.33°EHedi — 34.80°N, 111.91°EHanjiajing — 36.06°N, 103.79°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.34°EKoobi Fora — 4.15°N, 36.40°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Dipodidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 66 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dipodidae and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Dipodidae and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

1,066 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 173 sites for Dipodidae, 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

64 references

Each of the 395 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. 52 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 Dipodidae

Credit
Marius Burger
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Dipodidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itDipodoidea through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Waterhouse 1842