Sciurus carolinensis

The eastern gray squirrel, spelled as grey squirrel outside of the United States, is a species of tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus. It is native to eastern North America, where it is the most prodigious and ecologically essential natural forest regenerator. Widely introduced to certain places around the world, the eastern gray squirrel in Europe, in particular, is regarded as an invasive species.

Sciurus carolinensis

JeffreyGammon · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
eastern gray squirrelPBDB
Sits inside
SciurusPBDB
Diet
granivore, frugivorePBDB, for Sciuridae
Life habit
arborealPBDB, for Sciurus
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Mass
15.5 gWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 1.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 29 occurrencesPleistocene — about 21 of 29 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 8 of 29 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 19 occurrences1.8 Mya11.7 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

29 occurrences of Sciurus carolinensis 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

29 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

3 formations

Caloosahatchee — 27.04°N, 81.82°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°W

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The named rock units Sciurus carolinensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 26 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sciurus carolinensis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Sciurus carolinensis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

738 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Sciurus carolinensis, 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 29 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 content2

Picture of Sciurus carolinensis

Credit
JeffreyGammon
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itSciurus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gmelin 1788