Crotalus horridus

The timber rattlesnake, also known commonly as the banded rattlesnake, and the canebrake rattlesnake in the southern United States, is a species of pit viper in the family Viperidae. The species is native to the eastern United States. Like all other pit vipers, it is venomous, with a very toxic bite. Its venom is extremely potent, and both hemorrhagic and neurotoxic venom are present depending on population and location. C. horridus is the only rattlesnake species in most of the populous Northeastern United States and is one of the most northerly distributed venomous snakes in North America. There are no subspecies that are recognized as being valid.

Crotalus horridus

Peter Paplanus from St. Louis, Missouri · CC BY 2.0 · 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
timber rattlesnakePBDB
Sits inside
CrotalusPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 4.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 4.7 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 9.4 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 13 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 13 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 11 of 13 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 13 occurrences9.6–9.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.2–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–8.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.3–7.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.9–7.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.6–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.6–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–5.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.0–4.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.6–4.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.3–4.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.6–3.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.3–3.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.3–2.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.6–1.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.3–990 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence990 ka–660 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence660 ka–330 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence330 ka–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences4.7 Mya129 ka9.9 Mya0 Mya

13 occurrences of Crotalus horridus 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

13 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

Long Pine — 42.38°N, 98.23°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 101.89°W

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The named rock units Crotalus horridus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Crotalus horridus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Crotalus horridus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

430 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Crotalus horridus, 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

12 references

Each of the 13 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 Crotalus horridus

Credit
Peter Paplanus from St. Louis, Missouri
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Crotalus horridus was found in Sketchfab.

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 itCrotalus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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