Muroidea

The Muroidea are a large superfamily of rodents, including mice, rats, voles, hamsters, lemmings, gerbils, and many other relatives. Although the Muroidea originated in Eurasia, they occupy a vast variety of habitats on every continent except Antarctica. Some authorities have placed all members of this group into a single family, Muridae, due to difficulties in determining how the subfamilies are related to one another. Many of the families within the Muroidea superfamily have more variations between the families than between the different clades. A possible explanation for the variations in rodents is because of the location of these rodents; these changes could have been due to radiation or the overall environment they migrated to or originated in. The following taxonomy is based on recent well-supported molecular phylogenies.

Muroidea

Unknown author Unknown author (original) / Ilmari Karonen (editing) · 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
Also called
mousePBDB
Sits inside
MyomorphiPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Rodentia
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Rodentia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 45 million years on record.

The record covers at least 45.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 9526 occurrencesEocene — about 66 of 9526 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 796 of 9526 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 2188 of 9526 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1412 of 9526 occurrencesPleistocene — about 4593 of 9526 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 1 occurrence53–51 Mya — about 1 occurrence51–50 Mya — about 3 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 3 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 4 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 2 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 2 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 3 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 16 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 22 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 120 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 134 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 122 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 127 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 155 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 153 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 87 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 117 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 134 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 260 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 322 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 264 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 222 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 315 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 380 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 726 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 1440 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 4386 occurrences45.9 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

9,526 occurrences of Muroidea 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

9,526 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

370 formations

Hsanda Gol — 45.27°N, 101.77°EHsanda Gol — 45.41°N, 101.26°EHsanda Gol — 45.26°N, 101.72°EHsanda Gol — 45.29°N, 101.63°EHsanda Gol — 45.45°N, 101.37°EHsanda Gol — 45.30°N, 102.08°EHsanda Gol — 45.39°N, 101.24°EHsanda Gol — 45.46°N, 101.20°EAlfambra — 40.37°N, 2.59°WAlfambra — 40.50°N, 2.66°WAlfambra — 40.38°N, 2.54°WAlfambra — 40.59°N, 2.69°WAlfambra — 40.35°N, 2.60°WAlfambra — 40.50°N, 1.02°W"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WGlenns Ferry — 43.60°N, 116.80°WGlenns Ferry — 42.82°N, 114.94°WGlenns Ferry — 43.00°N, 118.00°WGlenns Ferry — 43.00°N, 115.70°WGlenns Ferry — 42.77°N, 114.96°WLower Manchar — 26.42°N, 67.83°EPalm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°WBarstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°WBarstow — 35.06°N, 117.08°WBrule — 43.90°N, 102.40°WBrule — 40.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 46.90°N, 102.80°WBrule — 42.90°N, 105.20°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 43.20°N, 103.20°WBrule — 42.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.71°N, 102.58°WBrule — 46.40°N, 103.30°WBrule — 43.50°N, 101.90°WBrule — 41.70°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.76°N, 101.93°WKingsdown — 37.05°N, 100.50°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°Wfacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°ERexroad — 37.10°N, 100.90°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WVogel River Series — 3.23°S, 35.23°EVogel River Series — 3.01°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.25°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EUlantatal — 39.20°N, 105.57°ESt. David — 32.00°N, 110.20°WSt. David — 31.97°N, 110.30°WChitarwata — 28.85°N, 69.13°EChitarwata — 30.08°N, 70.33°EVihowa — 30.08°N, 70.33°ESan Timoteo — 33.90°N, 117.00°WMakapansgat — 24.20°S, 28.95°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.35°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 34.32°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.61°N, 11.78°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 47.92°N, 10.59°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.44°N, 11.04°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.66°N, 10.23°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.09°N, 10.03°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.16°N, 10.11°EShungura — 5.08°N, 36.03°EShungura — 5.05°N, 36.03°ELefkon — 41.13°N, 23.48°ELefkon — 41.17°N, 23.50°ELefkon — 41.18°N, 23.42°ELefkon — 40.78°N, 24.03°EAral — 47.37°N, 60.87°EAral — 46.80°N, 60.58°EAral — 50.30°N, 57.18°EAral — 46.78°N, 60.50°EAral — 50.20°N, 66.80°EKromdraai — 26.00°S, 27.75°E

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The named rock units Muroidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 346 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 6,360 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Muroidea and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Muroidea and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,066 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 744 sites for Muroidea, and this reads 240 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

1,306 references

Each of the 9,526 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. 1,294 further references are not listed. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Muroidea

Credit
Unknown author Unknown author (original) / Ilmari Karonen (editing)
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Muroidea 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 itMyomorphi through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Illiger 1811