Gopherus

Gopherus is a genus of fossorial tortoises commonly referred to as gopher tortoises. The gopher tortoise is grouped with land tortoises that originated 60 million years ago, in North America. A genetic study has shown that their closest relatives are in the Asian genus Manouria. The gopher tortoises live in the southern United States from California's Mojave Desert across to Florida, and in parts of northern Mexico. Gopher tortoises are so named because of some species' habit of digging large, deep burrows. Most notably, Gopherus polyphemus digs burrows which can be up to 40 feet (12 m) in length and 10 feet (3.0 m) in depth. These burrows are used by a variety of other species, including mammals, other reptiles, amphibians, and birds. Gopher tortoises are 20–50 cm (7.9–19.7 in) in length, depending on the species. All six species are found in xeric habitats. Numerous extinct species are known, the oldest dating to the Priabonian stage of the Late Eocene of the United States.

Gopherus

Uncredited · 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
Also called
gopher tortoisePBDB
Sits inside
TestudinidaePBDB
Diet
herbivore, herbivorePBDB, for Testudinidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Testudinidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Testudinidae

Time the record covers

At least 39 million years on record.

The record covers at least 39.7 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 45.9 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 6 of 95 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 5 of 95 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 14 of 95 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 6 of 95 occurrencesPleistocene — about 59 of 95 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 3 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences30–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–9.4 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences9.4–7.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences7.8–6.2 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences6.2–4.7 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.7–3.1 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.1–1.6 Mya — about 8 occurrences1.6–0 Mya — about 58 occurrences39.7 Mya11.7 ka46.8 Mya0 Mya

95 occurrences of Gopherus 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

95 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

27 formations

Beaumont — 26.48°N, 97.78°WBeaumont — 26.44°N, 97.68°WBeaumont — 26.44°N, 97.60°WBrule — 42.86°N, 103.57°WBrule — 42.90°N, 104.15°WBrule — 42.88°N, 104.12°WChadron — 42.86°N, 103.57°WBarstow — 35.05°N, 117.07°WKingsdown — 37.04°N, 100.48°WArikaree — 43.20°N, 108.20°WTacubaya — 21.80°N, 102.30°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WSilver Bluff — 32.56°N, 80.29°W"Santa Margarita" — 35.10°N, 118.80°WBopesta — 35.19°N, 118.28°WGood Creek — 34.00°N, 99.80°WOgallala — 35.79°N, 99.61°WTurlock Lake — 37.06°N, 120.20°WWhite River — 40.80°N, 103.10°WUpper Harrison — 41.17°N, 104.09°WHarrison — 42.39°N, 103.86°WPunchbowl — 34.80°N, 117.00°WFort Hancock — 31.50°N, 105.20°WBlanco — 33.81°N, 101.21°WPawnee Creek — 40.74°N, 103.14°WDeep River — 42.27°N, 105.44°WCanepatch — 33.68°N, 78.88°W

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The named rock units Gopherus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 54 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Gopherus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Gopherus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,094 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 92 sites for Gopherus, 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

47 references

Each of the 95 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. 35 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 Gopherus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Gopherus berlandieri · MVZ:Herp:MVZ:Herp:36747

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 itTestudinidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rafinesque 1832