Naja

Naja is a genus of venomous elapid snakes commonly known as cobras. Various species occur throughout Africa, Southwest Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Several other elapid species are often called "cobras", such as the king cobra and the rinkhals, but they are not "true cobras", in that they do not belong to the genus Naja.

Naja

Pavan Kumar N · CC BY-SA 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
Also called
cobraPBDB
Sits inside
ElapidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Elapidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Elapidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Oligocene — about 0 of 39 occurrencesMiocene — about 31 of 39 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 6 of 39 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 2 of 39 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 2 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.6–7.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.3–5.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.5–4.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.7–3.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.9–3.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence785 ka–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence15.98 Mya129 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

39 occurrences of Naja 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

39 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

9 formations

Vogel River Series — 3.25°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°ECórcoles — 40.47°N, 2.68°WEdelény — 48.39°N, 20.64°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 35.37°EGrund — 48.63°N, 16.06°ELefkon — 41.17°N, 23.50°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.63°N, 11.80°ENea Messimvria — 40.77°N, 22.79°EVille — 50.90°N, 6.45°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Naja has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 27 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Naja and its relatives

Miocene

Where Naja and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

849 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 33 sites for Naja, 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

31 references

Each of the 39 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. 19 further references are not listed. 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 Naja

Credit
Pavan Kumar N
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
NAJA NAJA · UMMZ:herps:61298

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 itElapidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Laurenti 1768