Agkistrodon

Agkistrodon is a genus of pit vipers commonly known as American moccasins. The genus is endemic to North America, ranging from the northeastern United States to northern Costa Rica. Eight species are recognized as being valid, all of them monotypic and closely related. Common names include: cottonmouths, copperheads, and cantils.

Agkistrodon

Uncredited · Public Domain · 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
cottonmouthPBDB
Sits inside
CrotalidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 9.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 9.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 12.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 2 of 25 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 25 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 16 of 25 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 3 of 25 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–10.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10.0–9.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.5–9.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.1–8.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.7–8.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.2–7.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.8–7.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.4–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.1–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.2–4.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.8–4.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.3–3.9 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.9–3.5 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.5–3.0 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.6–2.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.2–1.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.7–1.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.3–867 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences867 ka–433 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence433 ka–0 Mya — about 11 occurrences9.4 Mya11.7 ka13 Mya0 Mya

25 occurrences of Agkistrodon on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

25 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

6 formations

Rexroad — 37.10°N, 100.90°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 101.89°WAsh Hollow — 42.63°N, 100.05°WLong Pine — 42.38°N, 98.23°WCrooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Agkistrodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Agkistrodon and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Agkistrodon and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

709 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 25 sites for Agkistrodon, 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 25 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 content2

Picture of Agkistrodon

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Agkistrodon caliginosus · UMMZ:Herps:117752

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 itCrotalidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Huxley 1865