Xenosauridae

Xenosauridae is a family of anguimorph lizards whose only living representative is the genus Xenosaurus, which is native to Central America. Xenosauridae also includes the extinct genera Exostinus and Restes. Also known as knob-scaled lizards, they have rounded, bumpy scales and osteoderms. Most living species prefer humid, rocky habitats, although they are widespread within their native regions, with some inhabiting semi-arid scrub environments. They are carnivorous or insectivorous, and give birth to live young.

Xenosauridae

William L. Farr · CC BY-SA 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
Sits inside
AnguimorphaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 96 million years on record.

The record covers at least 113.2 Mya to 16.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 12.5 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 4 of 37 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 26 of 37 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 3 of 37 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 2 of 37 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 37 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 1 of 37 occurrencesMiocene128–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences120–116 Mya — about 1 occurrence116–112 Mya — about 1 occurrence112–108 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences85–81 Mya — about 2 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 3 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 3 occurrences73–69 Mya — about 9 occurrences69–65 Mya — about 9 occurrences65–61 Mya — about 2 occurrences61–57 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences57–53 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences53–50 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences50–46 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–30 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences18–14 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences14–10 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences113.2 Mya16.3 Mya128 Mya10 Mya

37 occurrences of Xenosauridae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

37 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

16 formations

Lance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.24°N, 104.29°WLance — 43.18°N, 104.51°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.25°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WFort Union — 41.30°N, 107.74°WFort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WFort Union — 47.60°N, 107.00°WIlek — 55.90°N, 87.96°EIlek — 56.53°N, 91.81°EOldman — 49.10°N, 110.94°WDzunbain — 42.45°N, 102.42°EAguja — 29.32°N, 103.52°WAguja — 29.34°N, 103.59°WKaiparowits — 37.80°N, 111.50°WKaiparowits — 37.42°N, 111.77°WTakli — 21.15°N, 79.10°EValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WJudith River — 47.81°N, 109.59°WMilk River — 49.10°N, 111.80°WBrule — 40.74°N, 103.19°WEl Gallo — 30.05°N, 115.76°WBridger — 41.50°N, 110.60°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.10°W

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The named rock units Xenosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Xenosauridae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

831 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 32 sites for Xenosauridae, 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

25 references

Each of the 37 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. 13 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 Xenosauridae

Credit
William L. Farr
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itAnguimorpha through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1866