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MammalBase - Accepted taxon: Orycteropus afer

Accepted taxon: Orycteropus afer


Accepted taxon: Orycteropus afer
Taxon: Orycteropus afer
Rank: Species
Higher Classification: TUBULIDENTATA | Orycteropodidae | Orycteropus
Reference: Wilson, Don E., and DeeAnn M. Reeder, eds. Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed), JHU Press, 2005.

Fig.1 - Ternary plot of the proximate analysis for the Orycteropus afer diet.
CF (Crude Fibre) 3, ASH (Ash contents) 2, NFE (Nitrogen-Free-Extract) 24, CP (Crude Protein) 25, EE (Ether Extract) 18. See details for the calculations in Lintulaakso, K., Tatti, N. and Žliobaitė, I., 2022. Quantifying mammalian diets. Mammalian Biology, pp.1-15. [DOI]


Table 1. List of Diet Items for Orycteropus afer.
TSN Complete name Part Ratio a. Reference(s)
Termitidae WHOLE 48.79 Damuth, J…
Formicidae WHOLE 19.70 Damuth, J…
Anoplolepis custodiens WHOLE 12.12 Grzimek,B…
Nasutitermitinae WHOLE 9.09 Grzimek,B…
Insecta WHOLE 3.64 Nowak,R. …
Macrotermitinae WHOLE 3.03 Grzimek,B…
Steatomys pratensis WHOLE 2.42 Nowak,R. …
Marah gilensis FRUIT 1.21 Nowak,R. …

a. Standardized values. See details for the calculations in Lintulaakso, K., Tatti, N. and Žliobaitė, I., 2022. Quantifying mammalian diets. Mammalian Biology, pp.1-15. [DOI]


Table 2. List of Standard Traits for Orycteropus afer.
Trait Selected Value All Value(s) Reference(s)
Dietary category: Eisenberg 1981 Insectivore Carnivore, Insectivore Brian K. McNab, 1986, 'The Influence of Food Habits on the Energetics of Eutherian Mammals', Ecological Monographs, vol. 56, no. 1, p. 1, Matt Sponheimer, Julia A. Lee-Thorp, 2001, 'The oxygen isotope composition of mammalian enamel carbonate from Morea Estate, South Africa', Oecologia, vol. 126, no. 2, pp. 153-157
Dietary category: Miljutin 2009 Animalivore Animalivore Brian K. McNab, 1986, 'The Influence of Food Habits on the Energetics of Eutherian Mammals', Ecological Monographs, vol. 56, no. 1, p. 1, Matt Sponheimer, Julia A. Lee-Thorp, 2001, 'The oxygen isotope composition of mammalian enamel carbonate from Morea Estate, South Africa', Oecologia, vol. 126, no. 2, pp. 153-157

Table 3. List of Standard Measurements for Orycteropus afer.
Measurement Location Unit n Total n Unknown n Female n Male Min Mean Max SD Reference(s)
Body Mass (BM) nan g 1 1 - - - 44,320 - - Engelman,…
Body Mass (BM) nan g 15 - - 15 - 53,300 - - Nelson, A…
Body Mass (BM) nan g 16 - 16 - - 51,400 - - Nelson, A…
Body Mass (BM) nan g - - - - 32,000 - 100,000 - Freudenth…
Head-Body Length (HBL) nan mm 15 - - 15 - 1,056 - - Nelson, A…
Head-Body Length (HBL) nan mm 16 - 16 - - 1,041 - - Nelson, A…
Head-Body Length (HBL) nan mm - - - - - 1,223.5 - - Engelman,…
Occipital condyle width (OCW) nan mm 1 1 - - - 45.51 - - Engelman,…

Table 4. List of other Measurements b. for Orycteropus afer.
Measurement Location Unit n Total n Unknown n Female n Male Min Mean Max SD Reference(s)
brainmass nan g - - - - - 80 - - Engelman,…
skull_length nan mm - - - - - 251 - - Engelman,…
BMR (kJ/h) nan kJ/h - - - - - 123 - - McNab, B.…
femur circumference nan mm - - - - - 75 - - Nelson, A…
femur diameter nan mm - - - - - 28 - - Nelson, A…
neck length nan mm - - - - - 99 - - Nelson, A…
BMR,mlO2/h nan mlO2/h 1 1 - - - 6,144 - - Genoud, M…

b. other Measurements. Source Measurements which are not listed on or mapped with the Standard Traits..


Table 5. List of Data Sources for Orycteropus afer.
Taxon Reference Match Status
Orycteropus afer Sponheimer,M., 2001, The oxygen isotope composition of mammalian enamel carbonate from Morea Estate, South Africa, Oecologia 1: Exact Taxon match Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer McNab,B. K., 1986, The influence of food habits on the energetics of eutherian mammals, Ecological Monographs 1: Exact Taxon match Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer Damuth, J. 2010. ABSOLUT 6 a mammalian database compiled by the national center for ecological analysis and synthesis (NCEAS ) workshop on mammalian communities. 1: Exact Taxon match Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer Nowak,R. M., 1991, Walker's mammals of the world, 1: Exact Taxon match Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer Grzimek,B., 2003, Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia: Mammals I-V, 1: Exact Taxon match Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer Nowak,R. M., 1991, Walker's mammals of the world, 1: Exact Taxon match Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer Engelman, R.K., 2022. Occipital condyle width (OCW) is a highly accurate predictor of body mass in therian mammals. BMC biology, 20(1), p.37. 1: Exact Taxon match Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer McNab, B.K., 2008. An analysis of the factors that influence the level and scaling of mammalian BMR. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, 151(1), pp.5-28. 1: Exact Taxon match Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer Nelson, A., Engelman, R.K. and Croft, D.A., 2023. How to weigh a fossil mammal? South American notoungulates as a case study for estimating body mass in extinct clades. Journal of Mammalian Evolution, 30(3), pp.773-809. 1: Exact Taxon match Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer Genoud, M., Isler, K. and Martin, R.D., 2018. Comparative analyses of basal rate of metabolism in mammals: data selection does matter. Biological Reviews, 93(1), pp.404-438. 1: Exact Taxon match Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer Freudenthal, M. and Martín-Suárez, E., 2013. Estimating body mass of fossil rodents. Scripta Geologica, 145, pp.1-513. 1: Exact Taxon match Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer Beaudrot, L., Acevedo, M.A., Gorczynski, D. and Harris, N.C., 2024. Geographic differences in body size distributions underlie food web connectance of tropical forest mammals. Scientific Reports, 14(1), pp.1-10. 1: Exact Taxon match Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer Rowan, J., Beaudrot, L., Franklin, J., Reed, K.E., Smail, I.E., Zamora, A. and Kamilar, J.M., 2020. Geographically divergent evolutionary and ecological legacies shape mammal biodiversity in the global tropics and subtropics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(3), pp.1559-1565. 1: Exact Taxon match Verified - Accepted

Citation for this page: [The MammalBase community 2026. / CC BY 4.0. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7462864 Orycteropus afer , Accessed 15th April 2026 at https://mammalbase.net/me/5308]