Boa constrictor

The boa constrictor, also known as the common boa, is a species of large, non-venomous, heavy-bodied snake that is frequently kept and bred in captivity. The boa constrictor is a member of the family Boidae. The species is native to tropical South America. A staple of private collections and public displays, its color pattern is highly variable yet distinctive. Four subspecies are recognized.

Boa constrictor

Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
BoaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Boinae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Boinae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Boinae

Time the record covers

At least 16 million years on record.

The record covers at least 16.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 18.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 2 of 6 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 3 of 6 occurrencesPleistocene19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.8–3.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.2–2.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.5–1.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.9–1.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.3–633 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences633 ka–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences16.3 Mya11.7 ka19 Mya0 Mya

6 occurrences of Boa constrictor 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

6 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

Alachua — 29.70°N, 82.60°WToropí — 28.60°S, 59.03°WMesa — 9.85°N, 63.33°W

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The named rock units Boa constrictor 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.

Boa constrictor and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Boa constrictor and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

133 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Boa constrictor, 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 6 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 content1

Picture of Boa constrictor

Credit
Charles J. Sharp
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No repository was searched for a 3D scan: the genus name is too short to search on without matching most of 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 itBoa through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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