Anguis fragilis

The common slow worm is a non-venomous species of legless lizard native to Europe. It is also called a deaf adder, blindworm, or regionally, a long-cripple, steelworm, and hazelworm.

Anguis fragilis

Uncredited · CC BY-SA 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
Also called
Slow wormPBDB
Sits inside
AnguisPBDB
Diet
insectivore, carnivorePBDB, for Anguidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11.1 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 12.75 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 5 of 62 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 7 of 62 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 42 of 62 occurrencesPleistocene13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.8–8.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.4–8.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.0–7.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.9–4.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.4–4.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.0–3.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.5–3.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.1–2.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.6–2.2 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.2–1.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.8–1.3 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.3–883 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences883 ka–442 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences442 ka–0 Mya — about 26 occurrences11.1 Mya11.7 ka13.3 Mya0 Mya

62 occurrences of Anguis fragilis 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

62 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

3 formations

Unterer Travertin — 50.97°N, 11.35°EUnterer Travertin — 50.95°N, 11.38°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°EOberer Travertin I — 50.97°N, 11.35°E

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The named rock units Anguis fragilis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 58 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Anguis fragilis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Anguis fragilis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

561 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 62 sites for Anguis fragilis, 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

19 references

Each of the 62 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. 7 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 content3

Picture of Anguis fragilis

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Anguis fragilis · FMNH:Amphibians and Reptiles:62458

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itAnguis through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linneaus 1758