Serengetilagus

Serengetilagus is an extinct genus of lagomorph in the family Leporidae. It lived in the Pliocene of Kenya and Tanzania and the Late Miocene of Chad. Serengetilagus is the best-represented taxon from Laetoli, with approximately 34 percent of fossils in the Laetolil Beds attributed to this genus. Additional specimens from Angola, Morocco and Ukraine may also belong to this genus. It had a number of specific features unknown in other lagomorphs, such as a "missing" mesoflexid on its third premolar.

Serengetilagus

FunkMonk · CC BY-SA 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
Sits inside
LeporinaePBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Leporidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Leporidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 3.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 4.16 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 129 ka.

Miocene — about 1 of 8 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 8 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 3 of 8 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 8 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.5–8.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.1–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.1–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences4.4–4.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.2–2.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.6–1.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.2–809 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences809 ka–404 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences404 ka–0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.16 Mya774 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

8 occurrences of Serengetilagus 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

8 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

Vogel River Series — 3.22°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.34°E

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The named rock units Serengetilagus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Serengetilagus and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Serengetilagus and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

340 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Serengetilagus, 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

7 references

Each of the 8 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. 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 Serengetilagus

Credit
FunkMonk
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Serengetilagus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itLeporinae through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dietrich 1941