Tupinambis

Tupinambis is a lizard genus which belongs to the family Teiidae and contains eight described species. These large lizards are commonly referred to as tegus. They are primarily found in South America, although T. teguixin also occurs in Panama.

Tupinambis

Kristof Zyskowski · CC BY 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
Also called
teguPBDB
Sits inside
LacertiliaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 16 million years on record.

The record covers at least 16.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 17.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 8 of 23 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 10 of 23 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 2 of 23 occurrencesPleistocene18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.4–7.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.8–7.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.2–6.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences6.6–6.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences6.0–5.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences5.4–4.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.8–4.2 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.2–3.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.6–3.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.0–2.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences600 ka–0 Mya — about 5 occurrences16.3 Mya11.7 ka18 Mya0 Mya

23 occurrences of Tupinambis on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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

23 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

9 formations

Monte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WSanta Cruz — 50.32°S, 68.90°WCollón Cura — 42.65°S, 69.70°WItuzaingo — 31.48°S, 60.23°WNuapua — 20.75°S, 63.07°WCerro Azul — 36.25°S, 65.51°WVillavieja — 3.22°N, 75.22°WIrene — 38.63°S, 60.61°WSan Gregorio — 11.30°N, 70.24°W

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The named rock units Tupinambis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Tupinambis and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Tupinambis and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

554 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Tupinambis, 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

17 references

Each of the 23 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. 5 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 Tupinambis

Credit
Kristof Zyskowski
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Tupinambis 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 itLacertilia through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Daudin 1802