Eomyidae

Eomyidae is a family of extinct rodents from North America and Eurasia related to modern day pocket gophers and kangaroo rats. They are known from the Middle Eocene to the Late Miocene in North America and from the Late Eocene to the Pleistocene in Eurasia. Eomyids were generally small, but occasionally large, and tended to be squirrel-like in form and habits. The family includes the earliest known gliding rodent, Eomys quercyi.

Eomyidae

Nobu Tamura · CC BY 3.0 · 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
GeomyoideaPBDB
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 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 39.7 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 45.9 Mya to 774 ka.

Eocene — about 249 of 726 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 243 of 726 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 220 of 726 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 12 of 726 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 726 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 8 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 18 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 18 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 18 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 18 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 19 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 57 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 72 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 61 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 44 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 24 occurrences30–28 Mya — about 17 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 28 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 39 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 40 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 27 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 20 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 24 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 27 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 31 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 27 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 21 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 13 occurrences11–9.4 Mya — about 10 occurrences9.4–7.8 Mya — about 13 occurrences7.8–6.2 Mya — about 10 occurrences6.2–4.7 Mya — about 10 occurrences4.7–3.1 Mya — about 6 occurrences3.1–1.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.6–0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences39.7 Mya2.58 Mya46.8 Mya0 Mya

726 occurrences of Eomyidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

726 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

90 formations

Chadron — 43.60°N, 102.45°WChadron — 42.40°N, 103.80°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.40°WChadron — 42.90°N, 105.20°WChadron — 45.47°N, 112.62°WChadron — 46.10°N, 103.30°WChadron — 43.30°N, 102.50°WChadron — 42.00°N, 104.20°WChadron — 42.79°N, 104.49°WChadron — 42.75°N, 103.65°WFriars — 32.90°N, 117.10°WFriars — 32.78°N, 117.07°WBrule — 42.90°N, 105.20°WBrule — 40.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 42.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 41.80°N, 103.80°WBrule — 46.40°N, 103.30°WBrule — 43.50°N, 101.90°WBrule — 43.20°N, 103.20°WBrule — 43.76°N, 101.93°WCypress Hills — 50.20°N, 107.60°WCypress Hills — 50.00°N, 107.90°WCypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WCypress Hills — 49.80°N, 109.00°WCypress Hills — 49.70°N, 109.00°WCypress Hills — 49.60°N, 108.80°WCypress Hills — 49.60°N, 109.00°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWhite River — 40.80°N, 103.10°WWhite River — 40.97°N, 106.22°WHsanda Gol — 45.31°N, 101.63°EHsanda Gol — 45.41°N, 101.26°EHsanda Gol — 45.27°N, 101.76°EHsanda Gol — 45.39°N, 101.24°EHsanda Gol — 45.45°N, 101.37°ERenova — 45.00°N, 112.80°WRenova — 46.00°N, 112.00°WRenova — 45.90°N, 112.25°WRenova — 46.40°N, 112.80°WRenova — 46.65°N, 113.05°WLower Freshwater Molasse — 48.35°N, 9.86°ESantiago — 33.40°N, 117.51°WSantiago — 33.19°N, 117.32°WSantiago — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSantiago — 33.13°N, 117.31°WJohn Day — 44.60°N, 119.62°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.65°WJohn Day — 45.08°N, 119.87°WJohn Day — 44.54°N, 119.63°WLoh — 45.49°N, 101.20°ELoh — 45.50°N, 101.97°ELoh — 45.34°N, 101.83°ELoh — 45.38°N, 101.51°ELoh — 45.54°N, 101.01°ELower Freshwater Molasse — 46.88°N, 7.11°ELignite-Sandstone — 41.00°N, 26.82°ELignite-Sandstone — 40.92°N, 26.81°ELignite-Sandstone — 38.15°N, 26.90°EChambers Tuff — 29.90°N, 104.20°WSespe — 34.30°N, 119.00°WSespe — 34.58°N, 119.26°WWulanbulage — 40.33°N, 107.00°EWulanbulage — 39.65°N, 106.68°E"Brian Head" — 37.80°N, 111.50°WParachucla — 30.20°N, 82.80°WParachucla — 30.00°N, 82.60°WHarrison — 42.80°N, 100.80°WAral — 50.30°N, 57.18°ECalcaires de Vacheres — 43.87°N, 5.52°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 47.92°N, 10.59°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.66°N, 10.23°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.09°N, 10.03°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.16°N, 10.11°EShihuiba — 24.46°N, 103.43°EXiaohe — 25.74°N, 101.88°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Eomyidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 66 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 265 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Eomyidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Eomyidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

2,115 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 454 sites for Eomyidae, and this reads 240 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

211 references

Each of the 726 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. 199 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 Eomyidae

Credit
Nobu Tamura
Licence
CC BY 3.0
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
Eomyidae indet. · UF:VP:305361

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 itGeomyoidea through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Winge 1887