Colubridae

Colubridae is a family of snakes. With 249 genera, it is the largest snake family. The earliest fossil species of the family date back to the Late Eocene epoch, with earlier origins suspected. Colubrid snakes are found on every continent except Antarctica.

Colubridae

MathKnight · 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
Also called
colubrid snakePBDB
Sits inside
SerpentesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 41 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 6 of 1417 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 21 of 1417 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 505 of 1417 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 188 of 1417 occurrencesPleistocene — about 658 of 1417 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 3 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 4 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 5 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 2 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 3 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 3 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 4 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 9 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 13 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 24 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 52 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 74 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 65 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 77 occurrences11–9.8 Mya — about 54 occurrences9.8–8.2 Mya — about 42 occurrences8.2–6.5 Mya — about 54 occurrences6.5–4.9 Mya — about 61 occurrences4.9–3.3 Mya — about 121 occurrences3.3–1.6 Mya — about 141 occurrences1.6–0 Mya — about 601 occurrences41.03 Mya11.7 ka49 Mya0 Mya

1,417 occurrences of Colubridae 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

1,417 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

103 formations

Kingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WKingsdown — 37.04°N, 100.50°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 101.89°WAsh Hollow — 43.40°N, 100.60°WAsh Hollow — 42.63°N, 100.05°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.81°N, 100.05°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.49°N, 98.11°WRexroad — 37.10°N, 100.90°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.44°N, 11.04°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.63°N, 11.80°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.66°N, 10.23°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.16°N, 10.11°EAlamosa — 37.37°N, 105.75°WLong Pine — 42.38°N, 98.23°WArikaree — 43.20°N, 108.20°WArikaree — 43.20°N, 107.10°WFleming — 30.70°N, 94.70°WFleming — 30.50°N, 95.00°WFleming — 30.80°N, 94.30°WFleming — 30.68°N, 95.05°WCrooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WMcPherson — 38.30°N, 97.60°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WOgallala — 39.08°N, 99.75°WOgallala — 39.80°N, 99.40°WFort Randall — 43.10°N, 98.30°WFort Randall — 43.53°N, 99.13°WFort Randall — 43.49°N, 99.27°WAlachua — 29.70°N, 82.60°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°Wfacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°E"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WWicomico — 29.42°N, 82.22°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WGood Creek — 34.00°N, 99.80°WSajovolgyi — 47.97°N, 19.69°ERingold — 47.00°N, 118.50°WMost — 50.42°N, 13.36°EElisabeth Bay — 26.96°S, 15.30°EWiesbaden — 50.04°N, 8.27°E

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The named rock units Colubridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 79 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 942 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Colubridae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Colubridae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

3,682 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 550 sites for Colubridae, and this reads 240 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

329 references

Each of the 1,417 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. 317 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 content2

Picture of Colubridae

Credit
MathKnight
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itSerpentes through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Oppel 1811