Lampropeltis calligaster
Lampropeltis calligaster is a species of kingsnake known commonly as the prairie kingsnake or yellow-bellied kingsnake.

Benjamin Genter · CC0 · 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
- prairie kingsnakePBDB
- Sits inside
- LampropeltisPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Lampropeltis
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Lampropeltis
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota
Time the record covers
At least 1.2 million years on record.
The record covers at least 1.4 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 11.7 ka.
5 occurrences of Lampropeltis calligaster 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
5 occurrences- Pliocene13%
- Pleistocene87%
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
3 formations
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The named rock units Lampropeltis calligaster 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.
Lampropeltis calligaster and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Lampropeltis calligaster and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
162 taxa- Ambystoma tigrinum3 sites
- Bufo woodhousei3 sites
- Coluber constrictor3 sites
- Eumeces3 sites
- Heterodon nasicus3 sites
- Heterodon platyrhinos3 sites
- Lampropeltis getulus3 sites
- Thamnophis3 sites
- Blarina brevicauda2 sites
- Chaetodipus hispidus2 sites
- Elaphe guttata2 sites
- Elaphe vulpina2 sites
- Geomys2 sites
- Holbrookia2 sites
- Microtus pennsylvanicus2 sites
- Nerodia2 sites
- Perognathinae2 sites
- Peromyscus2 sites
- Phrynosoma2 sites
- Pituophis2 sites
- Rana2 sites
- Sorex cinereus2 sites
- Spea bombifrons2 sites
- Spermophilus tridecemlineatus2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Lampropeltis calligaster, 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- A succession of Pliocene and Pleistocene snake faunas from the High Plains of the United States2
- Herpetofaunas of the Big Springs and Hornet's Nest quarries (northeastern Nebraska, Pleistocene: Late Blancan)1
- Herpetofauna of the Nash Local Fauna (Pleistocene: Aftonian) of Kansas1
- Pleistocene snakes of the Ozark Plateau1
Each of the 5 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 Lampropeltis calligaster
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Benjamin Genter
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Lampropeltis calligaster 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 itLampropeltis through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Harlan 1827)