Sistrurus catenatus

The eastern massasauga is a species of rattlesnake found in eastern North America, from southern Ontario, Canada, eastern regions of the Midwestern states, and parts of the Great Lakes region in the United States. Like all rattlesnakes, it is a pit viper and is venomous; it is the only species of venomous snake in Ontario.

Sistrurus catenatus

Uncredited · 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
SistrurusPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 400 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 1.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Pliocene — about 2 of 6 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 4 of 6 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 6 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.0–867 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences173 ka–0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.8 Mya – 1.4 Mya5.2 Mya0 Mya

6 occurrences of Sistrurus catenatus 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

6 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

3 formations

Rexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WLong Pine — 42.38°N, 98.23°WCrooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°W

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The named rock units Sistrurus catenatus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sistrurus catenatus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Sistrurus catenatus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

247 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Sistrurus catenatus, 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

4 references

Each of the 6 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 content1

Picture of Sistrurus catenatus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Sistrurus catenatus 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 itSistrurus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rafinesque 1818