Blanus cinereus

The Iberian worm lizard, Mediterranean worm lizard, or European worm lizard is a species of reptile in the family Blanidae of the clade Amphisbaenia. The Iberian worm lizard is locally known as cobra-cega (Portuguese), culebrilla ciega (Spanish), and colobreta cega (Catalan), all meaning "blind snake". Recent studies into the mitochondrial and nuclear genomic data of 47 isolated B. cinereus populations show rather large sequence divergence between two apparent clades, leading some researchers to call for a division of the Iberian worm lizard into two species. While little is known of B. cinereus in comparison with some other reptile species, new insight is growing about this primitive, ancestral reptile.

Blanus cinereus

Richard Avery · 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
Mediterranean worm lizardPBDB
Sits inside
BlanusPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Amphisbaenidae
Life habit
fossorialPBDB, for Amphisbaenidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amphisbaenia

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.

Pliocene — about 2 of 9 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 7 of 9 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 9 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences137 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.58 Mya129 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

9 occurrences of Blanus cinereus 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

9 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.

Blanus cinereus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Blanus cinereus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

118 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Blanus cinereus, 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

8 references

Each of the 9 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 content2

Picture of Blanus cinereus

Credit
Richard Avery
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Blanus cinereus · mzh:ms:1285

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 itBlanus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Vandelli 1797