Megapedetes

Megapedetes is a genus of fossil rodents related to the springhare and other species of the genus Pedetes, with which it forms the family Pedetidae. At least four species are known, which ranged through Africa, southwestern Asia, and southeastern Europe from the Miocene to the Pliocene. The genus was larger than Pedetes.

Megapedetes

via iDigBio · CC BY · via iDigBio. 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
PedetidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Pedetidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Pedetidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 9.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 13.82 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 11.63 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 12 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 11 of 12 occurrencesMiocene28–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23.04 Mya13.82 Mya27.8 Mya11.1 Mya

12 occurrences of Megapedetes on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

12 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

5 formations

Maboko — 0.17°N, 34.62°EDam — 25.98°N, 49.39°EUpper Koru Series — 0.23°S, 35.34°EMuhroni Agglomerates — 0.14°S, 35.21°ELegetet — 0.18°S, 35.27°E

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The named rock units Megapedetes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Megapedetes and its relatives

Miocene

Where Megapedetes and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

242 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Megapedetes, 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

9 references

Each of the 12 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. 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 Megapedetes

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
CC BY
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Megapedetes 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 itPedetidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. MacInnes 1957