Amphisbaenidae

The Amphisbaenidae are a family of amphisbaenians, a group of limbless reptiles. There are 12 genera, containing 183 species.

Amphisbaenidae

Diogo B. Provete · CC BY-SA 2.5 · 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
worm lizardPBDB
Sits inside
AmphisbaeniformesPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB
Life habit
fossorialPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amphisbaenia

Time the record covers

At least 72 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 100 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 3 of 100 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 25 of 100 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 17 of 100 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 36 of 100 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 100 occurrencesPleistocene — about 12 of 100 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences63–60 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences60–57 Mya — about 1 occurrence57–54 Mya — about 2 occurrences54–51 Mya — about 3 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 3 occurrences48–45 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 1 occurrence40–37 Mya — about 5 occurrences37–34 Mya — about 10 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 4 occurrences31–28 Mya — about 4 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 5 occurrences26–23 Mya — about 5 occurrences23–20 Mya — about 4 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 6 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 13 occurrences14–11 Mya — about 8 occurrences11–8.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.5–5.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.7–2.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.8–0 Mya — about 14 occurrences72.2 Mya11.7 ka85 Mya0 Mya

100 occurrences of Amphisbaenidae 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

100 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

24 formations

Córcoles — 40.47°N, 2.68°WLignites de Soissonais — 43.62°N, 5.75°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.05°N, 4.00°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.08°N, 4.03°EMaboko — 0.17°N, 34.62°EPerrière — 44.37°N, 1.73°EPerrière — 44.38°N, 1.43°ETienen — 50.82°N, 5.10°ELaa — 48.37°N, 16.35°EWasatch — 42.37°N, 108.91°WPerriere — 44.35°N, 1.73°EDam — 25.98°N, 49.39°ECypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WBullion Creek — 47.03°N, 103.65°WSilveirinha — 40.01°N, 8.82°WPerfugas — 40.72°N, 9.10°EWiesbaden — 50.04°N, 8.27°EMost — 50.42°N, 13.36°EQuercy Phosphorites — 44.27°N, 1.63°EHainin — 50.43°N, 3.75°EConglomérat de Cernay — 49.27°N, 4.10°ECalcaire de Saint-Ouen — 49.13°N, 3.35°EHeadon Hill — 50.72°N, 1.59°WBaruungoyot — 43.50°N, 101.13°EGebeceler — 38.77°N, 30.74°EAshley — 32.83°N, 79.99°WDetritic-Carbonated Unit of Subirats — 41.42°N, 1.81°E

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The named rock units Amphisbaenidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 68 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Amphisbaenidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Amphisbaenidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,601 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 81 sites for Amphisbaenidae, 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

54 references

Each of the 100 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. 42 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 Amphisbaenidae

Credit
Diogo B. Provete
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Amphisbaenidae was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.

MorphoSource 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 itAmphisbaeniformes through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gray 1865)