Xenodermus

Xenodermus javanicus, also known as the dragon snake, Javan tubercle snake, Javan mudsnake, or rough-backed litter snake, is a small, non-venomous, semi-fossorial snake species belonging to the monotypic genus Xenodermus. This species is best known for their characteristic dorsal scales and interesting defense mechanism in which they stiffen their entire bodies when threatened. X. javanicus is nocturnal and subsists on a diet of frogs, tadpoles and small fish. They most often perish once placed into captivity; only a few herpetoculturists have been successful in keeping them.

Xenodermus

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
ElapidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Elapidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Elapidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 3 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.63 Mya and 8.725 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Miocene — about 1 of 1 occurrenceMiocene12–12 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences10–10 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences10–10 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences10–10 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences10–9.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.9–9.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.8–9.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.7–9.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.5–9.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.4–9.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.3–9.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.1–9.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.0–8.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.9–8.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.7–8.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12.13 Mya8.22 Mya

1 occurrence of Xenodermus on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

1 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.

Xenodermus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Xenodermus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

7 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Xenodermus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Xenodermus

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

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Xenodermus javanicus · FMNH:Amphibians and Reptiles:158613

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 itElapidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Reinhardt 1836