Sirenidae

Searched as Siren. The Paleobiology Database treats Sirenidae as the accepted name.

Siren is a genus of aquatic salamanders of the family Sirenidae. The genus consists of five extant species, along with one extinct species from the Eocene Epoch and three from the Miocene.

Sirenidae

User:Stan Shebs · 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
sirenPBDB
Sits inside
UrodelaPBDB
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 93 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 116 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 64 of 116 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 12 of 116 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 1 of 116 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 116 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 10 of 116 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 116 occurrencesPleistocene — about 24 of 116 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 1 occurrence96–92 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 2 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 3 occurrences79–75 Mya — about 3 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 6 occurrences72–68 Mya — about 28 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 21 occurrences65–62 Mya — about 8 occurrences62–58 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences48–44 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences31–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 4 occurrences14–10 Mya — about 3 occurrences10–6.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.8–3.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.4–0 Mya — about 27 occurrences93.9 Mya11.7 ka103 Mya0 Mya

116 occurrences of Sirenidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

116 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

26 formations

Hell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 45.98°N, 103.75°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 47.68°N, 106.43°WHell Creek — 47.62°N, 107.32°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 106.27°WHell Creek — 47.61°N, 106.90°WHell Creek — 47.27°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 45.05°N, 101.97°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 47.47°N, 107.37°WLance — 43.30°N, 104.37°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WLance — 43.18°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.25°N, 104.65°WLance — 43.00°N, 104.50°WFort Union — 45.80°N, 109.80°WFort Union — 43.85°N, 108.35°WFort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WFort Union — 47.60°N, 107.00°WFort Union — 41.30°N, 107.74°WFerris — 41.94°N, 106.88°WFleming — 30.70°N, 94.70°WFleming — 30.50°N, 95.00°WFleming — 30.80°N, 94.30°WFleming — 30.68°N, 95.05°WWadi Milk — 16.70°N, 31.14°ETamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WTamiami — 27.78°N, 82.68°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WAlachua — 29.70°N, 82.60°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WAoufous — 31.77°N, 5.94°WIron Springs — 37.57°N, 113.43°WIron Springs — 37.90°N, 112.74°WEl Molino — 17.69°S, 65.94°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WJudith River — 47.81°N, 109.59°WMesaverde — 42.85°N, 107.28°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WNacimiento — 36.57°N, 107.97°WBridger — 41.70°N, 109.00°WFrenchman — 49.30°N, 108.40°WLebo — 45.80°N, 109.80°WDinosaur Park — 49.96°N, 110.27°WBlack Peaks — 29.28°N, 103.55°WMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Sirenidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 29 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sirenidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Sirenidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1,752 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 104 sites for Sirenidae, 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

49 references

Each of the 116 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. 37 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 content2

Picture of Sirenidae

Credit
User:Stan Shebs
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Siren lacertina · AMNH:Herpetology:A-171810

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 itUrodela through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1825