Pedetidae

The Pedetidae are a family of rodents. The two living species, the springhares, are distributed throughout much of Southern Africa and also around Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Fossils have been found as far north as Turkey. Together with the anomalures and zenkerella, Pedetidae forms the suborder Anomaluromorpha. The fossil genus Parapedetes is also related.

Pedetidae

Devonpike at English Wikipedia · 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
springharePBDB
Sits inside
AnomaluromorphiPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 2 of 28 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 15 of 28 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 28 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 8 of 28 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.8–1.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 5 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

28 occurrences of Pedetidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

28 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

Maboko — 0.15°S, 34.60°EMaboko — 0.17°N, 34.62°EMaboko — 0.15°N, 34.62°ESwartkrans — 26.02°S, 27.72°EVogel River Series — 3.22°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°ETiim — 0.84°N, 35.82°EMuhroni Agglomerates — 0.14°S, 35.21°EDam — 25.98°N, 49.39°EUpper Koru Series — 0.23°S, 35.34°ELegetet — 0.18°S, 35.27°E

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The named rock units Pedetidae 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.

Pedetidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Pedetidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

517 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 26 sites for Pedetidae, 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

21 references

Each of the 28 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. 9 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 Pedetidae

Credit
Devonpike at English Wikipedia
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pedetidae 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 itAnomaluromorphi through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1825