Dipodomys compactus

The Gulf Coast kangaroo rat is a species of rodent in the family Heteromyidae found in Mexico and the state of Texas in the United States. Its appearance and ecology are very similar to those of its putative sister species, Ord's kangaroo rat.

Dipodomys compactus

NPS · 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
Gulf Coast kangaroo ratPBDB
Sits inside
DipodomysPBDB
Diet
granivorePBDB, for Dipodomys
Life habit
saltatorialPBDB, for Dipodomys
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 4.5 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 4.7 Mya and 210 ka, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pliocene — about 5 of 11 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 6 of 11 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 11 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.0–867 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.2 Mya0 Mya

11 occurrences of Dipodomys compactus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

11 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

1 formation

Palm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°W

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The named rock units Dipodomys compactus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Dipodomys compactus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Dipodomys compactus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

68 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Dipodomys compactus, 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

1 reference

Each of the 11 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Dipodomys compactus

Credit
NPS
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Dipodomys compactus · um:-

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 itDipodomys through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. True 1889