Heteromyinae

Heteromyinae is a subfamily of rodents in the family Heteromyidae, commonly known as spiny pocket mice. It contains a single extant genus, Heteromys, as well as the extinct genera Diprionomys and Metaliomys. Heteromys was recently enlarged by inclusion of the members of formerly recognized heteromyine genus Liomys, which was found to be paraphyletic.

Heteromyinae

Bale & Danielsson; Bannwarth, Th.; Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company; Godman, Frederick Du Cane; Hanhart; Horma… · 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
Sits inside
HeteromyidaePBDB
Diet
granivore, browserPBDB, for Heteromyidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Heteromyidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 16 million years on record.

The record covers at least 16.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 18.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 17 of 31 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 6 of 31 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 6 of 31 occurrencesPleistocene19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences10–9.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences9.5–8.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.9–8.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.2–7.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.6–7.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.0–6.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.3–5.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.7–5.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.1–4.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.4–3.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.8–3.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.2–2.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.5–1.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.9–1.3 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences633 ka–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences16.3 Mya11.7 ka19 Mya0 Mya

31 occurrences of Heteromyinae on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

31 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

13 formations

Ash Hollow — 41.30°N, 101.89°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 105.10°WThousand Creek — 41.10°N, 117.80°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WBlanco — 33.70°N, 101.10°WSevier — 38.58°N, 112.27°WOgallala — 39.08°N, 99.75°WDrewsey — 42.70°N, 118.70°WEsmeralda — 37.96°N, 118.03°WChalk Butte — 43.60°N, 117.50°WBarstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°WZia Sand — 35.70°N, 107.00°WBanta Shut-In — 29.27°N, 103.05°WKern River — 35.30°N, 118.50°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Heteromyinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Heteromyinae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Heteromyinae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

709 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Heteromyinae, 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

19 references

Each of the 31 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. 7 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 Heteromyinae

Credit
Bale & Danielsson; Bannwarth, Th.; Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company; Godman, Frederick Du Cane; Hanhart; Horma…
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Heteromyinae 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 itHeteromyidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1868