Pterosphenus

Pterosphenus is an extinct genus of marine snake of the Eocene period.

Pterosphenus

SpinoJP · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
aquaticPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
coastal,oceanic,marine,brackishPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 18 million years on record.

The record covers at least 56 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 59.24 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Paleocene — about 1 of 38 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 37 of 38 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 38 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 3 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 4 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 4 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 4 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 4 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 4 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 4 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 4 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 2 occurrences56 Mya37.71 Mya59.7 Mya33.4 Mya

38 occurrences of Pterosphenus 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

38 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

21 formations

Panandhro — 23.68°N, 68.74°EYazoo — 31.93°N, 88.46°WYazoo — 31.82°N, 92.33°WYazoo — 32.47°N, 90.29°WYazoo — 31.93°N, 91.94°WTwiggs — 32.70°N, 83.63°WLaredo — 27.53°N, 99.43°WMoodys Branch — 32.23°N, 92.15°WMoodys Branch — 32.30°N, 90.18°WQasr el-Sagha — 29.66°N, 30.74°EQasr el-Sagha — 29.62°N, 30.69°ETupelo Bay — 33.33°N, 79.67°WTupelo Bay — 33.21°N, 80.45°WYazoo Clay — 32.03°N, 91.03°WCrystal River — 29.65°N, 82.60°WDomanda — 29.93°N, 70.12°EClinchfield — 32.91°N, 83.36°WSeca — 2.33°S, 80.83°WPondaung — 21.95°N, 94.53°ECambay Shale — 21.40°N, 73.08°EVincentown — 39.94°N, 74.75°WBirket Qarun — 29.60°N, 30.60°ESamlat — 23.30°N, 16.06°WAridal — 25.09°N, 13.89°WParkers Ferry — 33.24°N, 80.44°WLandana — 5.22°S, 12.14°EAmeki — 5.56°N, 7.52°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pterosphenus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pterosphenus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Pterosphenus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

579 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 31 sites for Pterosphenus, 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 38 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 content3

Picture of Pterosphenus

Credit
SpinoJP
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
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
Pterosphenus schucherti · IITB:R:1

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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. Lucas 1898