Muscardinus avellanarius
The hazel dormouse or common dormouse is a small dormouse species native to Europe and the only living species in the genus Muscardinus.

Danielle Schwarz · 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
- hazel dormousePBDB
- Sits inside
- MuscardinusPBDB
- 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 1.6 million years on record.
The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka.
9 occurrences of Muscardinus avellanarius 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 occurrences- Pleistocene100%
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.
Muscardinus avellanarius and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Muscardinus avellanarius and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
151 taxa- Apodemus6 sites
- Apodemus sylvaticus6 sites
- Microtus6 sites
- Myodes4 sites
- Sorex minutus4 sites
- Talpa minor4 sites
- Allocricetus3 sites
- Apodemus mystacinus3 sites
- Arvicola terrestris3 sites
- Canis lupus3 sites
- Eliomys quercinus3 sites
- Glis glis3 sites
- Microtus arvalis3 sites
- Pliomys3 sites
- Sciurus3 sites
- Sorex3 sites
- Allophaiomys pliocaenicus2 sites
- Amphibia2 sites
- Anguis fragilis2 sites
- Arvicola2 sites
- Aves2 sites
- Cervus elaphus2 sites
- Chionomys nivalis2 sites
- Cricetulus migratorius2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Muscardinus avellanarius, 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
8 references- The micromammals of the Quaternary deposits from Cave A, Loutra Almopias (Pella, Northern Greece): Stratigraphy-Taphonomy-Paleoenvironment2
- Mittelpleistozane Saugetierfaunen aus Mitteleuropa - der Versuch einer biostratigraphischen Zuordnung1
- Early Middle Pleistocene mammalian faunas from Karlich (Kaerlich) and Miesenheim I and their biostratigraphical implications1
- I giacimenti Quaternari di vertebrati fossili nell'Italia Nord-Orientale1
- The Latest Villfranchian faunas in Italy - the Pirro Nord local fauna (Apricena, Gargano)1
- Les rongeurs de la Grotte du Vallonnet (Alpes-Maritimes), L'environnement et l'age du site1
- Pleistocene vertebrate faunas of Hungary1
- The Pliocene and Pleistocene Gliridae (Mammalia, Rodentia) from Poland1
Each of the 9 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content3
Picture of Muscardinus avellanarius
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Danielle Schwarz
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Muscardinus avellanarius · mnhn:zm:MO-1993-2973
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
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 itMuscardinus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)