Morelia

Morelia is a genus of large snakes in the family Pythonidae. The genus is native to Australia, Indonesia, and New Guinea. As of 2024, up to eight species are recognized.

Morelia

Benchill · CC BY 3.0 · 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
PythonidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pythonidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Pythonidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Pythonidae

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 17 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 14 of 17 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 17 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 17 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.6–4.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

17 occurrences of Morelia on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

17 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

Camfield Beds — 17.12°S, 131.52°ECarl Creek Limestone — 19.08°S, 138.72°ESystem B — 19.01°S, 138.67°EAllingham — 19.72°S, 145.60°E

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The named rock units Morelia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Morelia and its relatives

Miocene

Where Morelia and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

161 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Morelia, 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

6 references

Each of the 17 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 Morelia

Credit
Benchill
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Morelia spilota · nmv:herpetology:D76156

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
disinn.vr
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 itPythonidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1842