Lycodon

Lycodon is a genus of snakes, commonly known as wolf snakes, in the subfamily Colubrinae of the family Colubridae.The Neo-Latin name Lycodon is derived from the Greek words λύκος (lykos) meaning wolf and οδόν (odon) meaning tooth, and refers to the fang-like anterior maxillary and mandibular teeth. The species in the genus Lycodon are nonvenomous, but many members strongly resemble the venomous kraits in appearance, an example of Batesian mimicry.

Lycodon

Saleem Hameed <saleemham at rediffmail.com> · CC BY 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
Sits inside
ColubridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Colubridae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Colubridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 2.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 0 of 8 occurrencesPliocene — about 6 of 8 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 2 of 8 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 8 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.2–972 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.6 Mya774 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

8 occurrences of Lycodon on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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

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

1 formation

Chiting — 23.02°N, 120.28°E

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The named rock units Lycodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lycodon and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Lycodon and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

27 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Lycodon, 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

3 references

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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Lycodon

Credit
Saleem Hameed <saleemham at rediffmail.com>
Licence
CC BY 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
Lycodon sp. · FMNH:Amphibians and Reptiles:165045

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

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 itColubridae through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fitzinger 1826