Lacerta agilis
The sand lizard is a lacertid lizard. There are several subspecies, including L. a. agilis, L. a. argus, and L. a. exigua.
George Chernilevsky · 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- Also called
- Sand lizardPBDB
- Sits inside
- LacertaPBDB
- Diet
- insectivore, carnivorePBDB, for Lacertidae
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Lacertidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota
- Length
- 78 mmWikidata
- Mass
- 11 gWikidata
Time the record covers
At least 1.6 million years on record.
The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.09 Mya to 11.7 ka.
8 occurrences of Lacerta agilis 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
8 occurrences- Pliocene10%
- Pleistocene91%
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.
Lacerta agilis and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Lacerta agilis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
145 taxa- Bufo bufo6 sites
- Anguis fragilis5 sites
- Coronella austriaca4 sites
- Rana temporaria4 sites
- Vipera (Pelias) berus4 sites
- Elaphe longissima3 sites
- Natrix natrix3 sites
- Rana3 sites
- Alces2 sites
- Allocricetus2 sites
- Apodemus2 sites
- Beremendia fissidens2 sites
- Bufo2 sites
- Elaphe quatuorlineata2 sites
- Megaloceros2 sites
- Mimomys2 sites
- Natrix2 sites
- Ophisaurus2 sites
- Pelobates fuscus2 sites
- Petenyia hungarica2 sites
- Salamandra2 sites
- Sorex2 sites
- Triturus2 sites
- Triturus cristatus2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Lacerta agilis, 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
4 references- Pleistocene Amphibians and Reptiles in Britain and Europe5
- Late Pleistocene Squamate Reptiles from the Baranica Cave near Knjaževac (Eastern Serbia)1
- Middle to Late Pleistocene herpetofauna from Scladina and Sous-Saint-Paul caves (Namur, Belgium)1
- Pleistocene vertebrate faunas of Hungary1
Each of the 8 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 content2
Picture of Lacerta agilis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- George Chernilevsky
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Lacerta agilis · volsu:volsu:98.2
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Sand lizard”
- 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 itLacerta through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linneaus 1758