Palaeophis

Palaeophis is an extinct genus of marine snake that is the type genus of the extinct snake family Palaeophiidae.

Palaeophis

Hectonichus · 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
Sits inside
PalaeophiidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 28 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 2 of 72 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 5 of 72 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 65 of 72 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 72 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences72–70 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences68–66 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences60–58 Mya — about 1 occurrence58–57 Mya — about 2 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 3 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 6 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 6 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 6 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 6 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 5 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 4 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 2 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 2 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 6 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 6 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 4 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–33 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences66 Mya37.71 Mya73 Mya33.1 Mya

72 occurrences of Palaeophis on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

72 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

31 formations

Nanjemoy — 37.54°N, 76.49°WNanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WNanjemoy — 38.41°N, 76.99°WTuscahoma — 32.36°N, 88.70°WShorym — 44.57°N, 51.65°EShorym — 43.79°N, 51.49°EShorym — 43.80°N, 51.75°EShorym — 43.85°N, 51.95°ECambay Shale — 21.33°N, 72.98°ECambay Shale — 21.40°N, 73.08°ECambay Shale — 21.35°N, 73.07°ETamaguélelt — 17.59°N, 0.25°ETamaguélelt — 17.59°N, 0.25°EKuma — 45.10°N, 34.63°EBashi — 32.29°N, 88.49°WSelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WLondon Clay — 51.51°N, 0.24°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°EShark River — 40.17°N, 74.15°WShark River — 40.30°N, 74.30°WVincentown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WAquia — 36.60°N, 76.47°WLisbon — 31.36°N, 86.52°WAlai Beds — 42.00°N, 76.00°EElmore — 50.80°N, 1.21°WBarton Clay — 50.74°N, 1.69°WOrizzonte di Roncà — 45.81°N, 11.29°EBukhara — 40.12°N, 70.63°EKiev — 45.06°N, 34.60°ETavda — 51.20°N, 63.58°EClinchfield — 32.91°N, 83.36°WTavda — 44.78°N, 33.86°EWilliamsburg — 33.43°N, 80.10°WShark River Marl — 40.17°N, 74.15°W

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The named rock units Palaeophis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Palaeophis and its relatives

Eocene

Where Palaeophis and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,186 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 59 sites for Palaeophis, 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

42 references

Each of the 72 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. 30 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 content1

Picture of Palaeophis

Credit
Hectonichus
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Palaeophis was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itPalaeophiidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1841