Acanthodactylus
Acanthodactylus is a genus of lacertid lizards, commonly referred to as fringe-fingered lizards, fringe-toed lizards, and spiny-toed lizards.

Charles J. Sharp · 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
- Fringe-fingered lizardPBDB
- Sits inside
- LacertidaePBDB
- Diet
- insectivore, carnivorePBDB, for Lacertidae
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Lacertidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota
Time the record covers
At least 2.4 million years on record.
The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 11.7 ka.
4 occurrences of Acanthodactylus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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
4 occurrences- Pliocene25%
- Pleistocene75%
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.
Acanthodactylus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Acanthodactylus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
125 taxa- Chalcides4 sites
- Blanus cinereus3 sites
- Alytes obstetricans2 sites
- Bufo2 sites
- Bufo bufo2 sites
- Epidalea calamita2 sites
- Lacertidae2 sites
- Lepus2 sites
- Acinonyx aicha1 site
- Alcidae1 site
- Allocricetus1 site
- Amphibia1 site
- Anancus1 site
- Anura1 site
- Apodemus sylvaticus1 site
- Arvicola1 site
- Aves1 site
- Beatragus antiquus remotus1 site
- Bison1 site
- Bitis1 site
- Blanus1 site
- Bufo viridis1 site
- Camelus1 site
- Candona1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Acanthodactylus, 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
4 references- Amphibians and reptiles as palaeonvironmental proxies during the Late Pleistocene (MIS3): The case of Stratigraphic Unit V of El Salt, Alcoi, Spain1
- Amphibians and squamate reptiles from the stratigraphic unit Xb of El Salt (Middle Palaeolithic; Alcoy, Spain): palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic implications1
- The early Pleistocene small vertebrate succession from the Orce region (Guadix-Baza Basin, SE Spain) and its bearing on the first human occupation of Europe1
- The late Pliocene locality of Ahl al Oughlam, Morocco; vertebrate fauna and interpretation1
Each of the 4 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 Acanthodactylus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Charles J. Sharp
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Acanthodactylus was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itLacertidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wiegmann 1834