Neotoma floridana

The eastern woodrat, also known as the Florida woodrat or bush rat, is a pack rat native to the central and Eastern United States. It constructs large dens that may serve as nests for many generations and stores food in outlying caches for the winter. While widespread and not uncommon, it has declined or disappeared in several areas.

Neotoma floridana

"Photo credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service" · 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
eastern woodratPBDB
Sits inside
NeotomaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Rodentia
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Neotoma
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Mass
299 gWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 762 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 774 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 57 occurrencesPleistocene — about 53 of 57 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 4 of 57 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 1.0 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 1.0 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 1.0 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 1.0 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 10 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 33 occurrences774 ka11.7 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

57 occurrences of Neotoma floridana 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

57 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

Kingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°WBacons Castle — 38.16°N, 76.83°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Neotoma floridana has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 52 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Neotoma floridana and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Neotoma floridana and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

934 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 57 sites for Neotoma floridana, 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

35 references

Each of the 57 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. 23 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 Neotoma floridana

Credit
"Photo credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service"
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Neotoma floridana floridana · UF:Mammals:10423

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 itNeotoma through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Ord 1818)