Dinilysia

Dinilysia is an extinct genus of snake from the Late Cretaceous (Coniacian) of South America. Dinilysia was a relatively large ambush predator, measuring approximately 2 m (6.6 ft) long. The skull morphology of Dinilysia is similar to boids, suggesting that it was able to consume large prey., Living in a desert-like environment, Dinilysia is likely a terrestrial or a semi-fossorial animal.

Dinilysia

J. Green · Public Domain · 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
SerpentesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 14 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 85.7 Mya and 72.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 7 of 7 occurrencesLate Cretaceous86–85 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences84–84 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences81–81 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences78–78 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences78–78 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences76–76 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences74–74 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences73–73 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86.2 Mya71.7 Mya

7 occurrences of Dinilysia on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

7 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

Bajo de la Carpa — 38.99°S, 68.23°WBajo de la Carpa — 38.93°S, 68.06°WAnacleto — 38.84°S, 68.03°WAnacleto — 37.51°S, 68.94°WAnacleto — 38.75°S, 68.75°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Dinilysia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Dinilysia and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Dinilysia and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

13 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Dinilysia, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

7 references

Each of the 7 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 Dinilysia

Credit
J. Green
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Dinilysia 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 itSerpentes through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Woodward 1901