Mellivora

Mellivora is a genus of mustelids which contains the honey badger, or ratel (Mellivora capensis), the sole living representative of the subfamily Mellivorinae. Additionally, two extinct species are known. The honey badger is native to much of Africa and South Asia, while fossil relatives occurred in those areas and Southern Europe.

Mellivora

Uncredited · 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
ratelPBDB
Sits inside
MellivoriniPBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB
Life habit
semifossorialPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 5.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 46 occurrencesMiocene — about 3 of 46 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 8 of 46 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 28 of 46 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 6 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 22 occurrences5.333 Mya11.7 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

46 occurrences of Mellivora 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

46 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

6 formations

Varswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EVogel River Series — 3.22°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°ESwartkrans — 26.02°S, 27.72°ENubia — 16.25°N, 33.75°EAdu-Asa — 10.32°N, 40.25°EColombacci — 44.22°N, 11.77°E

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The named rock units Mellivora has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 34 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mellivora and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Mellivora and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

640 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 45 sites for Mellivora, 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

40 references

Each of the 46 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. 28 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 Mellivora

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
MooreLab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itMellivorini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Storr 1780