Acrodonta

Acrodonta are a subclade of iguanian squamates consisting almost entirely of Old world taxa. Extant representation include the families Chamaeleonidae (chameleons) and Agamidae, with at least over 500 species described. Two fossil genera, Gueragama and Bharatagama, were found in Brazil, making them the only known American representatives of the group. However, doubt has since been cast on the placement of each of these within Acrodonta.

Acrodonta

Benny Trapp · CC BY 3.0 · 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
Sits inside
ChamaeleontiformesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 170 million years on record.

The record covers at least 170.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 184.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Jurassic — about 1 of 170 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 170 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 170 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 170 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 6 of 170 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 4 of 170 occurrencesEocene — about 59 of 170 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 18 of 170 occurrencesMiocene — about 49 of 170 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 11 of 170 occurrencesPleistocene — about 17 of 170 occurrences188–182 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences182–175 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences175–169 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences132–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–119 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences119–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113–106 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences106–100 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences100–94 Mya — about 3 occurrences94–88 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences88–81 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences81–75 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences75–69 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences69–63 Mya — about 2 occurrences63–56 Mya — about 2 occurrences56–50 Mya — about 17 occurrences50–44 Mya — about 20 occurrences44–38 Mya — about 19 occurrences38–31 Mya — about 9 occurrences31–25 Mya — about 11 occurrences25–19 Mya — about 8 occurrences19–13 Mya — about 29 occurrences13–6.3 Mya — about 9 occurrences6.3–0 Mya — about 35 occurrences170.9 Mya11.7 ka188 Mya0 Mya

170 occurrences of Acrodonta on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

170 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

48 formations

Friars — 32.90°N, 117.10°WCambay Shale — 21.33°N, 72.98°ECambay Shale — 21.40°N, 73.08°EKhaychin — 43.72°N, 99.93°EHsanda Gol — 45.27°N, 101.76°EHsanda Gol — 45.30°N, 102.08°EHsanda Gol — 45.42°N, 101.26°Efacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°EVille — 50.90°N, 6.45°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.44°N, 11.04°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.63°N, 11.80°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.16°N, 10.11°EBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WBridger — 41.70°N, 109.00°WBridger — 41.29°N, 110.55°WBridger — 41.04°N, 110.23°WPondaung — 21.95°N, 94.53°EPondaung — 21.77°N, 94.85°EWasatch — 42.37°N, 108.91°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WBrackwater Molasse — 48.48°N, 10.10°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.08°N, 4.03°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.05°N, 4.00°EHetaoyuan — 33.25°N, 111.45°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EAlai Beds — 42.00°N, 76.00°EQuercy Phosphorites — 44.27°N, 1.63°EDoumu — 30.76°N, 116.55°EDoumu — 30.62°N, 116.48°EWanghudun — 30.59°N, 116.50°EWanghudun — 30.76°N, 116.55°EHuadian — 43.00°N, 126.67°EUpper Koru Series — 0.23°S, 35.34°ELegetet — 0.18°S, 35.27°EChinji — 32.93°N, 71.66°ELushi — 34.05°N, 111.03°EGreen River — 40.20°N, 109.90°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Acrodonta has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 24 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 70 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Acrodonta and its relatives

Eocene

Where Acrodonta and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

2,625 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 141 sites for Acrodonta, 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

91 references

Each of the 170 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. 79 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 content1

Picture of Acrodonta

Credit
Benny Trapp
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Acrodonta was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itChamaeleontiformes through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1864