Pelobates syriacus
Pelobates syriacus, the eastern spadefoot or Syrian spadefoot, is a species of toad in the family Pelobatidae, native to an area extending from Eastern Europe to Western Asia.

F. C. Robiller / naturlichter.de · 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
- Syrian spadefoot toadPBDB
- Sits inside
- PelobatesPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
- Life habit
- amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
- Environment
- brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda
Time the record covers
At least 5 million years on record.
The record covers at least 5.09 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 8.725 Mya to 0 Mya.
8 occurrences of Pelobates syriacus 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
8 occurrences- Miocene12%
- Pliocene20%
- Pleistocene56%
- Holocene13%
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
2 formations
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The named rock units Pelobates syriacus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Pelobates syriacus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Pelobates syriacus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
154 taxa- Bufo viridis4 sites
- Rana4 sites
- Crocidura kornfeldi3 sites
- Lacerta3 sites
- Pelophylax3 sites
- Anura2 sites
- Apodemus2 sites
- Apodemus mystacinus2 sites
- Apodemus sylvaticus2 sites
- Bufo bufo2 sites
- Bufotes viridis2 sites
- Chiroptera2 sites
- Colubrinae2 sites
- Coronella austriaca2 sites
- Elaphe longissima2 sites
- Equus2 sites
- Erinaceus praeglacialis2 sites
- Hyla arborea2 sites
- Lacertidae2 sites
- Latonia2 sites
- Lepus2 sites
- Macaca2 sites
- Myomimus roachi2 sites
- Natrix2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Pelobates syriacus, 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
5 references- Salientia3
- Pleistocene Amphibians and Reptiles in Britain and Europe2
- New palaeoecological insights for the early human occupation in Europe: amphibians and reptiles from the Early Pleistocene of Pirro Nord 13 (Apricena, southern Italy)1
- Early Pleistocene amphibians and squamates from Copăceni (Dacian Basin, southern Romania)1
- The faunal remains of Iraq e Zigan, a Late Pleistocene site on Mt. Carmel1
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. 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 Pelobates syriacus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- F. C. Robiller / naturlichter.de
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Pelobates syriacus · MVZ:Herp:MVZ:Herp:234651
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 itPelobates through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Boettger 1889