Eunectes

Anacondas or water boas are a group of large boas of the genus Eunectes. They are a semiaquatic group of snakes found in tropical South America. Two to four extant and one extinct species are currently recognized, including one of the largest snakes in the world, E. murinus, the green anaconda.

Eunectes

LA Dawson · CC BY-SA 2.5 · 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
anacondaPBDB
Sits inside
BoidaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, piscivorePBDB
Life habit
aquaticPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 25 million years on record.

The record covers at least 27.3 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 774 ka.

Eocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesOligocene — about 1 of 6 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 4 of 6 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 6 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–10 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.3–8.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.3–111 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27.3 Mya1.8 Mya34.6 Mya111 ka

6 occurrences of Eunectes on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

4 formations

Villavieja — 3.26°N, 75.17°WSolimões — 8.78°S, 68.90°WLa Victoria — 3.31°N, 75.17°WSan Gregorio — 11.30°N, 70.19°W

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The named rock units Eunectes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Eunectes and its relatives

Miocene

Where Eunectes and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

79 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Eunectes, 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 content3

Picture of Eunectes

Credit
LA Dawson
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Eunectes murinus · UF:Herp:2210

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check 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 itBoidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wagler 1830