Dryomys nitedula
(Pallas, 1778) · speciesAt a glance
Sources10 archives
Databases and archives Dryomys nitedula's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation15 languages↗
Animal Diversity WebUniv. of Michigan MZspecies account↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility2 244 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI3 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics10 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
Paleobiology DatabasePBDB consortiumfossil record↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The forest dormouse (Dryomys nitedula) is a species of rodent in the family Gliridae found in eastern Europe, the Balkans and parts of western Central Asia. It is categorized as being of least concern in the IUCN List of Threatened Species due to its wide range and stable population trend. Forest dormice have a diploid count (2n) of 48 chromosomes.Mitsainas, Georue GP. "Chromosomal Studies on Greek Populations of Four Small Rodent Species." Folia Zoologica 57.4 (2008): 337-46. Even though this species lives in a variety of geographic locations, its greatest population density is in the forests of central Moldova, in Transcaucasia, and in the mountains of Central Asia. In most other locations, population density of this species is rather low. Population density is dependent on many factors. But the main features that this species depends on for choosing a location are the presence of the appropriate food sources as well as good foliage that can be used for a habitat. The reason why the forests in central Moldova have the highest population density is they provide the largest diversity of food sources which are available throughout the year. This location also provides the best type of foliage for the forest dormice to build their nests as well as swing from branches. The combination of both of these aspects allows for this species to have its highest needs met. Therefore, during mating season they produce offspring who also stay in the same general area when they mature. It makes sense not to move from an area if it is providing for your most basic needs. The common name for Eliomys is the garden dormouse. Dryomys are often compared to Eliomys as they have many similarities. However, Dryomys is smaller in size. Two more differences between the two are the braincase for Dryomys is more rounded and the auditory bullae is smaller than that of Eliomys. In addition, their tails are slightly different. The Dryomys's tail is more uniform in color than that of Eliomys."Animal Diversity Web." ADW: Dryomys Nitedula: INFORMATION. Web. 03 Dec. 2013. <http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Dryomys_nitedula/>. The forest dormouse competes in artificial and natural nests with hazel dormice, fat dormice, and birds. Its biggest competitors are those species which eat similar types of food and who live in the same kind of habitat.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology3
Life cycle & reproduction6
Diet & foraging8
Habitat & environment2
Physiology & chemistry2
Other traits2
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Dryomys nitedula has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The solid bar is the fossil range: the span between the oldest and the youngest fossil that palaeontologists have assigned to Dryomys nitedula. Above itBeside it, each dot is one dated fossil find — few enough to count, so they are drawn individually rather than as a graph. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil. Where the DNA reaches further back than the oldest fossil, the gap is hatched: the ghost lineage. It means the lineage was already out there, but has left us nothing we have dug up yet.
How it livedPBDB
Record type2 251 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions15 of 33 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Zoological Museum, National Museum of Natural History, Ukrainian Academy of Scienceslocation not on record | 110 |
| ISUIZlocation not on record | 88 |
| MRI-PASlocation not on record | 87 |
| Bonn, DE | 74 |
| Salzburg, AT | 69 |
| Belgrade : Natural History Museumlocation not on record | 60 |
| Instytut Ochrony Przyrody Polskiej Akademii Nauklocation not on record | 44 |
| Dhaka, BD | 31 |
| KhUMNlocation not on record | 26 |
| UNIBUClocation not on record | 24 |
| Chicago, US | 20 |
| Lubbock, US | 14 |
| Provincia di Livornolocation not on record | 9 |
| Geneva, CH | 9 |
| Uniwersytet w Białymstokulocation not on record | 6 |
| München, DE | 6 |
| Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record | 4 |
| Cambridge, US | 4 |
| Washington, US | 3 |
| Brussels, BE | 3 |
| Stockholm, SE | 2 |
| Zoological Museum, Moscow Lomonosov State Universitylocation not on record | 2 |
| SNSB-SPMlocation not on record | 2 |
| South Kensington, GB | 2 |
| Berkeley, US | 2 |
| Museo civico di Storia naturale Giacomo Doria di Genova | Giacomo Doria Natural History Museum in Genoalocation not on record | 2 |
| NTNU-VMlocation not on record | 1 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 1 |
| New Haven, US | 1 |
| Mongolian Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 1 |
| Muzeum Górnośląskie w Bytomiulocation not on record | 1 |
| Centre Suisse de Cartographie de la Faunelocation not on record | 1 |
| Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznańlocation not on record | 1 |
Where the DNA of Dryomys nitedula was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.