Polychrotidae

The Polychrotidae family of iguanian lizards contains the living genus Polychrus and the extinct genus Afairiguana. The family Polychrotidae was once thought to encompass all anoles, including those in the genus Anolis. Studies of the evolutionary relationships of anoles based on molecular information has shown that Polychrus is not closely related to Anolis, but instead closer to Hoplocercidae. It is therefore not part of Dactyloidae and instead is treated as the family, Polychrotidae.

Polychrotidae

Bolívar R. Garcete-Barrett · Attribution · 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
PleurodontaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 51 million years on record.

The record covers at least 51.1 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 64 occurrencesEocene — about 4 of 64 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 64 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 4 of 64 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 64 occurrencesPleistocene — about 32 of 64 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–15 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 54 occurrences51.1 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

64 occurrences of Polychrotidae 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

64 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

6 formations

Chadron — 46.10°N, 103.30°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WChapelton — 18.33°N, 77.92°WWicomico — 29.42°N, 82.22°WGreen River — 41.67°N, 110.67°WMazantic Shale — 17.15°N, 92.72°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Polychrotidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 57 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Polychrotidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Polychrotidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

775 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 51 sites for Polychrotidae, 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

28 references

Each of the 64 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. 16 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 Polychrotidae

Credit
Bolívar R. Garcete-Barrett
Licence
Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Polychrotidae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itPleurodonta through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Macey et al. 1997)