Bitis

Bitis is a genus of vipers found in Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. It includes the largest and the smallest vipers in the world. Members are known for their characteristic threat displays that involve inflating and deflating their bodies while hissing and puffing loudly. The type species for this genus is B. arietans, which is also the most widely distributed viper in Africa. Currently, 18 species are recognized.

Bitis

Julius Rückert · 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
puff adderPBDB
Sits inside
ViperinaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 9.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 774 ka.

Miocene — about 1 of 10 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 10 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 5 of 10 occurrencesPleistocene16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.6–4.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.1–3.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.5–3.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.0–2.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.4–1.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.9–1.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.4–814 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence814 ka–274 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11.63 Mya1.8 Mya16.5 Mya274 ka

10 occurrences of Bitis on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

10 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

2 formations

Vogel River Series — 3.22°S, 35.21°EVogel River Series — 3.25°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 35.37°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.34°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Bitis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Bitis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Bitis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

288 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Bitis, 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

5 references

Each of the 10 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 content3

Picture of Bitis

Credit
Julius Rückert
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
Bitis gabonica · am:herpetology:D179186

3D model

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

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 itViperinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gray 1842)