Sciuridae

Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-sized rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, and flying squirrels. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa, and were introduced by humans to Australia. The earliest known fossilized squirrels date from the Eocene epoch, and among other living rodent families, the squirrels are most closely related to the mountain beaver and dormice.

Sciuridae

Chicoutimi (montage) Karakal AndiW National Park Service en:User:Markus Krötzsch The Lilac Breasted Roller Nico Conra… · CC BY 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
squirrelPBDB
Sits inside
SciuromorphaPBDB
Diet
granivore, frugivorePBDB
Life habit
scansorialPBDB
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 51.1 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 29 of 2080 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 156 of 2080 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 857 of 2080 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 165 of 2080 occurrencesPleistocene — about 786 of 2080 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–36 Mya — about 5 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 14 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 20 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 25 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 24 occurrences30–28 Mya — about 21 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 24 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 26 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 34 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 37 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 48 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 82 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 130 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 140 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 102 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 79 occurrences10–8.7 Mya — about 67 occurrences8.7–7.0 Mya — about 85 occurrences7.0–5.2 Mya — about 81 occurrences5.2–3.5 Mya — about 103 occurrences3.5–1.7 Mya — about 152 occurrences1.7–0 Mya — about 778 occurrences45.9 Mya11.7 ka52 Mya0 Mya

2,080 occurrences of Sciuridae 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

2,080 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

204 formations

Brule — 40.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 46.40°N, 103.30°WBrule — 42.00°N, 104.20°WBrule — 43.20°N, 103.20°WBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 41.70°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.76°N, 101.93°WBarstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°WBarstow — 35.06°N, 117.08°WLoh — 45.54°N, 101.01°ELoh — 45.49°N, 101.20°ELoh — 45.34°N, 101.83°ELoh — 45.26°N, 101.72°ELoh — 45.38°N, 101.51°EJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.65°WJohn Day — 45.08°N, 119.87°WJohn Day — 44.55°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 44.83°N, 119.74°WJohn Day — 44.59°N, 119.63°WSespe — 34.25°N, 118.96°WSespe — 33.83°N, 117.71°WSespe — 33.73°N, 117.72°WSespe — 33.60°N, 117.61°WValentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WValentine — 42.49°N, 98.11°WValentine — 42.80°N, 99.70°WValentine — 42.81°N, 100.05°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.60°N, 98.00°WValentine — 42.70°N, 102.50°WAsh Hollow — 42.39°N, 98.10°WAsh Hollow — 40.50°N, 100.50°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 101.89°WAsh Hollow — 43.40°N, 100.60°WAsh Hollow — 41.40°N, 102.40°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WAsh Hollow — 41.10°N, 103.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.63°N, 100.05°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 105.10°WMR Caliente — 34.30°N, 119.00°WAlfambra — 40.37°N, 2.59°WAlfambra — 40.35°N, 2.60°WArikaree — 43.20°N, 108.20°WArikaree — 43.20°N, 107.10°W"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WKingsdown — 37.05°N, 100.50°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WCypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WCypress Hills — 49.70°N, 109.00°WCypress Hills — 49.60°N, 109.00°WCypress Hills — 49.60°N, 108.80°WCypress Hills — 49.80°N, 109.00°WFleming — 31.10°N, 93.10°WFleming — 30.70°N, 94.70°WFleming — 31.00°N, 93.40°WFleming — 30.80°N, 94.30°WFleming — 30.50°N, 95.00°WCrooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WCrooked Creek — 39.00°N, 98.20°WVaqueros — 33.78°N, 117.77°WVaqueros — 33.78°N, 117.75°WVaqueros — 33.72°N, 117.73°WChadron — 42.40°N, 103.80°WChadron — 46.10°N, 103.30°WChadron — 42.75°N, 103.65°WGlenns Ferry — 42.80°N, 114.90°WLefkon — 41.13°N, 23.48°ELefkon — 41.17°N, 23.50°ELefkon — 41.18°N, 23.42°ELower Manchar — 26.42°N, 67.83°EWhite River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWhite River — 42.71°N, 105.35°WAlamosa — 37.37°N, 105.75°WVogel River Series — 3.22°S, 35.21°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°ELower Freshwater Molasse — 48.37°N, 9.87°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Sciuridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 180 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 1,291 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sciuridae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Sciuridae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

2,002 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 1,166 sites for Sciuridae, 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

614 references

Each of the 2,080 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. 602 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 Sciuridae

Credit
Chicoutimi (montage) Karakal AndiW National Park Service en:User:Markus Krötzsch The Lilac Breasted Roller Nico Conra…
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
Jtroya
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itSciuromorpha through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1821