Steatomys

Nicola van Berkel · 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.

Also called

fat mousePBDB

Sits inside

MuridaePBDB

Diet

herbivore, insectivorePBDB, for Muridae

Life habit

ground dwellingPBDB, for Muridae

Motility

actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Environment

terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

• Miocene2%
• Pliocene31%
• Pleistocene62%
• Holocene5%

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.

Where Steatomys and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene. Draw the map

• Otomys17 sites
• Epimys (Aethomys)16 sites
• Tatera14 sites
• Dasymys12 sites
• Mus12 sites
• Dendromus11 sites
• Saccostomus10 sites
• Epimys (Mastomys)9 sites
• Mystromys9 sites
• Cryptomys hottentotus8 sites
• Elephantulus8 sites
• Suncus varilla8 sites
• Crocidura7 sites
• Elephantulus brachyrhynchus7 sites
• Eptesicus7 sites
• Graphiurus7 sites
• Lemniscomys7 sites
• Malacothrix7 sites
• Praomys7 sites
• Rhabdomys7 sites
• Rhinolophus7 sites
• Thallomys7 sites
• Zelotomys7 sites
• Aves6 sites

The Paleobiology Database records 20 sites for Steatomys, 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.

• Early and Middle Pleistocene environments and hominid biogeography; micromammalian evidence from Kabwe, Twin Rivers and Mumbwa Caves in central ZambiaAvery, 2003 · Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology · journal article4
• Laetoli: a Pliocene Site in Northern TanzaniaLeakey and Harris, 1987 · Clarendon Press, Oxford, Great Britain2
• Plio-Pleistocene fossil mammalian microfauna of southern Africa: a preliminary report including descriptions of two new fossil muroid genera (Mammalia: Rodentia)Pocock, 1987 · Palaeontologica Africana2
• BovidaeGentry, 1978 · Evolution of African Mammals. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts · book/book chapter2
• The Swartkrans Palaeontological Research Project in perspective: results and conclusionsBrain, 1994 · South African Journal of Science1
• The Makapansgat australopithecine environmentRayner et al., 1993 · Journal of Human Evolution · journal article1
• Evolution and sedimentary character of lake deltas fed by ephemeral rivers in the Turkana Basin, southern KenyaFrostick and Reid, 1986 · Geological Society of America Special Publication1
• Structure of Nylsrley SavannaHuntley and Walker, 1982 · Ecology of Tropical Savannas, Huntley B.J.&B.H. Walker, eds., Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 19821
• The Hunters of the Hunted? An Introduction to African Cave TaphonomyBrain, 1981 · University of Chicago Press, Chicago1
• Paleoenvironmental and Cultural Implications of Late Holocene Archaeological Faunas from the Orange Free State and North Central Cape Province, South AfricaKlein, 1979 · South African Archaeological Bulletin · journal article1
• The Mammalian Fauna from the Middle and Later Stone Age (Later Pleistocene) Levels of Border Cave, Natal Province, South AfricaKlein, 1977 · South African Archaeological Bulletin1
• The Pliocene fossil occurences in 'E' Quarry, Langebaanweg, South AfricaHendey, 1976 · Annals of the South African Museum · journal article1

Each of the 20 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. 2 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.

What may have been alongside itMuridae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Peters 1846