Lemniscomys

Lemniscomys, sometimes known as striped grass mice or zebra mice, is a genus of murine rodents from Africa. Most species are from Sub-Saharan Africa; L. barbarus is the only one found north of the Sahara. They are generally found in grassy habitats, but where several species overlap in distribution there is a level of habitat differentiation between them.

Lemniscomys

No machine-readable author provided. ElinorD assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY-SA 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
striped grass mousePBDB
Sits inside
MuridaePBDB
Diet
herbivore, insectivorePBDB, for Muridae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Muridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 3.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 15 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 15 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 9 of 15 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 4 of 15 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.5–8.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.1–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.1–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.4–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.2–2.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.6–1.2 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.2–809 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences809 ka–404 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences404 ka–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences3.6 Mya11.7 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

15 occurrences of Lemniscomys 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

15 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

4 formations

Shungura — 5.06°N, 36.03°ESwartkrans — 26.02°S, 27.72°EKromdraai — 26.00°S, 27.75°EAdu-Asa — 10.32°N, 40.25°E

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The named rock units Lemniscomys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lemniscomys and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Lemniscomys and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

351 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Lemniscomys, 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

13 references

Each of the 15 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. 1 further reference is 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 Lemniscomys

Credit
No machine-readable author provided. ElinorD assumed (based on copyright claims).
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Lemniscomys was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itMuridae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Trouessart 1881