Talpidae

The family Talpidae includes the true moles, who are small insectivorous mammals of the order Eulipotyphla. Talpids are all digging animals to various degrees: moles are completely subterranean animals; shrew moles and shrew-like moles somewhat less so; and desmans, while basically aquatic, excavate dry sleeping chambers; whilst the quite unique star-nosed mole is equally adept in the water and underground. Talpids are found across the Northern Hemisphere of Eurasia and North America, and range as far south as the montane regions of tropical Southeast Asia.

Talpidae

Alborzagros · 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
molePBDB
Sits inside
TalpoideaPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB
Life habit
fossorialPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 9 of 1116 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 128 of 1116 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 476 of 1116 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 148 of 1116 occurrencesPleistocene — about 352 of 1116 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 3 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 6 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 11 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 13 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 13 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 12 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 18 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 23 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 23 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 28 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 18 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 21 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 23 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 33 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 52 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 52 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 48 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 59 occurrences11–9.8 Mya — about 33 occurrences9.8–8.4 Mya — about 43 occurrences8.4–7.0 Mya — about 39 occurrences7.0–5.6 Mya — about 31 occurrences5.6–4.2 Mya — about 60 occurrences4.2–2.8 Mya — about 81 occurrences2.8–1.4 Mya — about 112 occurrences1.4–0 Mya — about 257 occurrences37.71 Mya11.7 ka41.9 Mya0 Mya

1,116 occurrences of Talpidae 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

1,116 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

131 formations

Valentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WValentine — 42.49°N, 98.11°WValentine — 42.80°N, 99.70°WValentine — 42.81°N, 100.05°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 42.60°N, 98.00°WValentine — 42.90°N, 100.18°WAsh Hollow — 42.80°N, 100.80°WAsh Hollow — 42.39°N, 98.10°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 101.89°WAsh Hollow — 41.20°N, 101.80°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.63°N, 100.05°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 105.10°WLower Freshwater Molasse — 48.35°N, 9.86°ELower Freshwater Molasse — 48.42°N, 9.95°EAlfambra — 40.39°N, 2.61°WAlfambra — 40.35°N, 2.60°WAlfambra — 40.59°N, 2.69°WAlfambra — 40.52°N, 2.72°WAlfambra — 40.50°N, 1.02°WUpper Freshwater Molasse — 47.92°N, 10.59°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.61°N, 11.78°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.66°N, 10.23°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.09°N, 10.03°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.16°N, 10.11°EAral — 50.30°N, 57.18°EAral — 46.78°N, 60.50°EPalm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°WReuver clay — 50.92°N, 6.82°EReuver clay — 50.90°N, 6.45°ERexroad — 37.10°N, 100.90°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°Wfacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°EBatesland — 43.20°N, 101.80°WBatesland — 43.13°N, 101.87°WWood Mountain — 49.17°N, 105.99°WWood Mountain — 49.20°N, 106.20°WLefkon — 41.13°N, 23.48°ELefkon — 41.17°N, 23.50°ERavin de Ratavoux — 43.78°N, 5.45°EHsanda Gol — 45.29°N, 101.63°EHsanda Gol — 45.41°N, 101.26°EHsanda Gol — 45.39°N, 101.24°EHsanda Gol — 45.26°N, 101.72°E"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WVille — 50.90°N, 6.45°EBrackwater Molasse — 48.48°N, 10.10°EMost — 50.42°N, 13.36°ETagay Khalagay — 53.15°N, 107.19°EPorsuk — 39.36°N, 31.91°EPorsuk — 39.34°N, 31.92°ESharps — 43.30°N, 102.50°WRunningwater — 42.49°N, 102.96°WRunningwater — 42.45°N, 102.96°WRunningwater — 42.20°N, 103.10°WDrewsey — 42.70°N, 118.70°W

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The named rock units Talpidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 107 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 759 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Talpidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Talpidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

2,710 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 728 sites for Talpidae, 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

343 references

Each of the 1,116 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. 331 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 Talpidae

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

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Talpidae indet. · UF:UF/TRO:1927

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 itTalpoidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Fischer de Waldheim 1817)