Paenemarmota

Paenemarmota is an extinct genus of ground squirrel from North America. Fossils are known from the Blancan and Hemphillian age from localities in the United States and Mexico. At around the size of a beaver, Paenemarmota is the largest known member of the squirrel family.

Paenemarmota

NPS/S. Lacy · CC0 · 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
Sits inside
MarmotiniPBDB
Diet
granivore, frugivorePBDB, for Sciuridae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Sciuridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 633 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 4.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 1.4 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 26 occurrencesMiocene — about 6 of 26 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 13 of 26 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 7 of 26 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–10.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences10.0–9.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.2–8.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.4–7.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.7–6.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.9–6.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.2–5.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.4–4.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.7–3.9 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.9–3.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.2–2.4 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.4–1.7 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.7–900 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence5.333 Mya – 4.7 Mya23.5 Mya900 ka

26 occurrences of Paenemarmota on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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

26 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

8 formations

Glenns Ferry — 42.80°N, 114.90°WBlanco — 33.70°N, 101.10°WRancho Viejo Beds — 21.20°N, 100.70°WRancho Viejo Beds — 21.03°N, 100.75°WRexroad — 37.10°N, 100.90°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WThousand Creek — 41.10°N, 117.80°W"Santa Fe" — 36.50°N, 107.00°WRingold — 46.30°N, 119.10°WGoleta — 19.70°N, 101.12°W

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The named rock units Paenemarmota has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Paenemarmota and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Paenemarmota and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

306 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 26 sites for Paenemarmota, 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

17 references

Each of the 26 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. 5 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 content1

Picture of Paenemarmota

Credit
NPS/S. Lacy
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Paenemarmota was found in Sketchfab.

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 itMarmotini through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hibbard and Schultz 1948