Alethinophidia

The Alethinophidia are an infraorder of snakes that includes all snakes other than blind snakes and thread snakes. Snakes have long been grouped into families within Alethinophidia based on their morphology, especially that of their teeth. More modern phylogenetic hypotheses using genetic data support the recognition of 19 extant families, although the taxonomy of alethinophidian snakes has long been debated, and ultimately the decision whether to assign a particular clade to a particular Linnaean rank is arbitrary.

Alethinophidia

Uncredited · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
SerpentesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 93 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 1336 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 34 of 1336 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 27 of 1336 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 262 of 1336 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 130 of 1336 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 480 of 1336 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 119 of 1336 occurrencesPleistocene — about 250 of 1336 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 2 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 2 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 2 occurrences79–75 Mya — about 2 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 3 occurrences72–68 Mya — about 13 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 12 occurrences65–62 Mya — about 10 occurrences62–58 Mya — about 7 occurrences58–55 Mya — about 19 occurrences55–51 Mya — about 29 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 39 occurrences48–44 Mya — about 32 occurrences44–41 Mya — about 28 occurrences41–38 Mya — about 31 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 86 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 40 occurrences31–27 Mya — about 20 occurrences27–24 Mya — about 59 occurrences24–21 Mya — about 59 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 83 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 143 occurrences14–10 Mya — about 122 occurrences10–6.8 Mya — about 66 occurrences6.8–3.4 Mya — about 110 occurrences3.4–0 Mya — about 317 occurrences93.9 Mya11.7 ka103 Mya0 Mya

1,336 occurrences of Alethinophidia on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

1,336 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

190 formations

Upper Freshwater Molasse — 48.44°N, 11.04°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.63°N, 11.80°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.66°N, 10.23°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.09°N, 10.03°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.17°N, 10.10°ENsungwe — 8.93°S, 33.20°EBridger — 42.37°N, 108.91°WBridger — 42.42°N, 109.35°WBridger — 41.80°N, 110.70°WBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WBridger — 41.27°N, 110.34°WBridger — 41.04°N, 110.23°WBridger — 42.70°N, 110.10°WBridger — 41.28°N, 110.00°WPerrière — 44.37°N, 1.73°EPerrière — 44.38°N, 1.43°EBrule — 42.88°N, 103.58°WBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 40.74°N, 103.19°WBrule — 45.50°N, 103.10°WBrule — 40.93°N, 103.32°WVillavieja — 3.26°N, 75.17°WVillavieja — 3.23°N, 75.14°WVillavieja — 3.25°N, 75.17°WHeadon Hill — 50.72°N, 1.59°WHeadon Hill — 50.72°N, 1.22°WOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.33°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 35.37°EVogel River Series — 3.22°S, 35.21°EVogel River Series — 3.25°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 101.89°WAsh Hollow — 42.63°N, 100.05°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.81°N, 100.05°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WHarrison — 42.40°N, 103.60°WHarrison — 42.80°N, 100.80°WHarrison — 42.40°N, 103.80°WRexroad — 37.10°N, 100.90°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WElisabeth Bay — 26.97°S, 15.33°EElisabeth Bay — 26.91°S, 15.21°ELa Victoria — 3.33°N, 75.16°WLa Victoria — 3.37°N, 75.14°WLa Victoria — 3.36°N, 75.17°WLa Victoria — 3.34°N, 75.15°WFleming — 31.00°N, 93.40°WFleming — 30.70°N, 94.70°WFleming — 30.50°N, 95.00°WFleming — 30.63°N, 95.01°WFleming — 30.68°N, 95.05°WAlachua — 29.70°N, 82.60°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WSespe — 34.30°N, 119.00°WSespe — 33.83°N, 117.71°WTudela — 42.06°N, 1.55°WTudela — 42.07°N, 1.61°WWadi Milk — 20.00°N, 30.00°EWadi Milk — 16.70°N, 31.14°ESarmiento — 45.40°S, 67.72°WSarmiento — 43.28°S, 65.48°WSarmiento — 44.35°S, 69.78°WSarmiento — 45.67°S, 68.67°WSarmiento — 45.78°S, 68.47°WHeadon Beds — 50.72°N, 1.59°WDam — 25.98°N, 49.39°EPerriere — 44.35°N, 1.73°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Alethinophidia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 166 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 721 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Alethinophidia and its relatives

Miocene

Where Alethinophidia and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

4,463 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 724 sites for Alethinophidia, and this reads 240 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

467 references

Each of the 1,336 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. 455 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 Alethinophidia

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Alethinophidia 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 itSerpentes through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Nopcsa 1923)