Scolecophidia

The Scolecophidia, commonly known as blind snakes or thread snakes, are an infraorder of snakes. They range in length from 10 to 100 centimeters. All are fossorial. Five families and 39 genera are recognized. The Scolecophidia infraorder is most-likely paraphyletic.

Scolecophidia

Jjargoud · 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
SerpentesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 65 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 55 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 55 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 3 of 55 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 55 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 31 of 55 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 55 occurrencesPleistocene — about 8 of 55 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences60–57 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences57–54 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences48–45 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–37 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences37–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–23 Mya — about 2 occurrences23–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 4 occurrences14–11 Mya — about 6 occurrences11–8.5 Mya — about 8 occurrences8.5–5.7 Mya — about 7 occurrences5.7–2.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.8–0 Mya — about 14 occurrences66 Mya11.7 ka85 Mya0 Mya

55 occurrences of Scolecophidia 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

55 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

13 formations

Parachucla — 30.20°N, 82.80°WPerrière — 44.37°N, 1.73°EPerrière — 44.38°N, 1.43°EAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WAlachua — 29.70°N, 82.60°WCórcoles — 40.47°N, 2.68°WLefkon — 41.17°N, 23.50°EDam — 25.98°N, 49.39°EJbel Guersif — 31.61°N, 5.66°WElisabeth Bay — 26.96°S, 15.30°EEdelény — 48.39°N, 20.64°EVillavieja — 3.25°N, 75.17°Wfacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°EAdamantina — 21.17°S, 48.50°WDetritic-Carbonated Unit of Subirats — 41.42°N, 1.81°E

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The named rock units Scolecophidia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 37 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Scolecophidia and its relatives

Miocene

Where Scolecophidia and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,184 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 51 sites for Scolecophidia, 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

41 references

Each of the 55 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. 29 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 Scolecophidia

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

No 3D scan of Scolecophidia 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 itSerpentes through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Duméril and Bibron 1844)