Alsophis

Alsophis is a genus of snakes in the subfamily Dipsadinae of the family Colubridae. Species in the genus Alsophis are among those snakes commonly called "racers". Alsophis species are endemic to the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. One species in the genus Alsophis, A. antiguae, is one of the world's rarest known snakes. Snakes of the genus Alsophis are small and rear-fanged, and they are considered harmless to humans. This genus contains nine described species which are recognized as being valid. Several species once included in this genus have been placed in the genera Borikenophis and Pseudalsophis.

Alsophis

Postdlf · 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
ColubridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Colubridae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Colubridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 129 thousand years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 129 ka and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pleistocene — about 1 of 14 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 13 of 14 occurrences147 ka–126 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences126 ka–105 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences105 ka–84 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences84 ka–63 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences63 ka–42 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42 ka–21 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21 ka–0 Mya — about 13 occurrences629 ka0 Mya

14 occurrences of Alsophis on record, most of them in the Holocene. 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

14 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.

Alsophis and its relatives

Holocene

Where Alsophis and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.

Found in the same rock

122 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Alsophis, 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

5 references

Each of the 14 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. 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 Alsophis

Credit
Postdlf
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
ALSOPHIS VUDII · UMMZ:herps:127968

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 itColubridae through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fitzinger 1843