Amphisbaenia

Amphisbaenia is a group of typically legless lizards, comprising over 200 extant species. Amphisbaenians are characterized by their long bodies, the reduction or loss of the limbs, and rudimentary eyes. As many species have a pink body and scales arranged in rings, they have a superficial resemblance to earthworms. While the genus Bipes retains forelimbs, all other genera are limbless. Phylogenetic studies suggest that they are nested within Lacertoidea, closely related to the lizard family Lacertidae. Amphisbaenians are widely distributed, occurring in North America, Europe, Africa, South America, Western Asia and the Caribbean. Most species are less than 6 inches (15 cm) long.

Amphisbaenia

Richard Avery · 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
Also called
worm lizardPBDB
Sits inside
SquamataPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB
Life habit
fossorialPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 110 million years on record.

The record covers at least 110.1 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 119.57 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 242 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 5 of 242 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 16 of 242 occurrencesEocene — about 74 of 242 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 57 of 242 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 62 of 242 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 10 of 242 occurrencesPleistocene — about 16 of 242 occurrences122–118 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences118–114 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences114–110 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences102–98 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences98–94 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences85–81 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 1 occurrence77–73 Mya — about 1 occurrence73–69 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences69–65 Mya — about 1 occurrence65–61 Mya — about 5 occurrences61–57 Mya — about 8 occurrences57–53 Mya — about 10 occurrences53–49 Mya — about 13 occurrences49–45 Mya — about 8 occurrences45–41 Mya — about 4 occurrences41–37 Mya — about 19 occurrences37–33 Mya — about 36 occurrences33–28 Mya — about 18 occurrences28–24 Mya — about 19 occurrences24–20 Mya — about 15 occurrences20–16 Mya — about 17 occurrences16–12 Mya — about 21 occurrences12–8.1 Mya — about 6 occurrences8.1–4.1 Mya — about 12 occurrences4.1–0 Mya — about 24 occurrences110.1 Mya11.7 ka122 Mya0 Mya

242 occurrences of Amphisbaenia on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

242 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

63 formations

Brule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 40.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.39°N, 102.49°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 42.76°N, 105.38°WBrule — 40.73°N, 103.11°WJohn Day — 44.67°N, 119.63°WJohn Day — 43.95°N, 120.31°WJohn Day — 44.83°N, 119.74°WJohn Day — 44.79°N, 119.58°WBridger — 42.42°N, 109.35°WBridger — 42.70°N, 110.10°WBridger — 46.10°N, 109.75°WBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WPerrière — 44.37°N, 1.73°EPerrière — 44.38°N, 1.43°EWhite River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WWhite River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWhite River — 40.80°N, 103.10°WLignites de Soissonais — 43.62°N, 5.75°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.05°N, 4.00°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.08°N, 4.03°EWasatch — 42.37°N, 108.91°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 110.70°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.91°N, 108.93°WFort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WTienen — 50.82°N, 5.10°ECórcoles — 40.47°N, 2.68°Wfacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°EMaboko — 0.17°N, 34.62°ERunningwater — 42.37°N, 103.32°WRunningwater — 41.70°N, 103.10°WVitoria — 42.66°N, 2.63°WNacimiento — 35.70°N, 107.00°WCypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WChadron — 46.10°N, 103.30°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.33°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WJbel Guersif — 31.61°N, 5.66°WUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.63°N, 11.80°EHainin — 50.43°N, 3.75°EConglomérat de Cernay — 49.27°N, 4.10°EElisabeth Bay — 26.97°S, 15.33°ELaa — 48.37°N, 16.35°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Amphisbaenia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 39 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 119 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Amphisbaenia and its relatives

Eocene

Where Amphisbaenia and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

3,374 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 181 sites for Amphisbaenia, 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

126 references

Each of the 242 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. 114 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 Amphisbaenia

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

No 3D scan of Amphisbaenia 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 itSquamata through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gray 1844)