Anguinae

Anguinae is a subfamily of legless lizards in the family Anguidae, commonly called glass lizards, glass snakes or slow worms. The first two names come from the fact their tails easily break or snap off. Members of Anguinae are native to North America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa.

A picture published with the record for Anguinae.

NatalieK · 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.

Time the record covers

At least 61 million years on record.

The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 537 occurrencesPaleocene — about 1 of 537 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 79 of 537 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 58 of 537 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 245 of 537 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 53 of 537 occurrencesPleistocene — about 92 of 537 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 6 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 6 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 5 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 4 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 3 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 3 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 4 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 5 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 21 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 24 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 17 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 8 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 9 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 13 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 15 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 17 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 21 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 43 occurrences16–13 Mya — about 39 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 29 occurrences11–9.0 Mya — about 30 occurrences9.0–6.7 Mya — about 35 occurrences6.7–4.5 Mya — about 37 occurrences4.5–2.2 Mya — about 50 occurrences2.2–0 Mya — about 92 occurrences61.66 Mya11.7 ka67 Mya0 Mya

537 occurrences of Anguinae on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

537 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

64 formations

Upper Freshwater Molasse — 48.15°N, 9.88°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.44°N, 11.04°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.66°N, 10.23°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.63°N, 11.80°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.57°N, 12.00°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.50°N, 11.09°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.60°N, 11.08°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.17°N, 10.10°EMost — 50.42°N, 13.36°EBrule — 42.62°N, 105.25°WBrule — 42.90°N, 105.38°WBrule — 40.95°N, 103.38°WBrule — 40.83°N, 104.00°WBrule — 42.78°N, 103.88°WBrule — 41.80°N, 103.80°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 45.62°N, 103.27°Wfacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°EPerrière — 44.37°N, 1.73°EPerrière — 44.38°N, 1.43°EPerrière — 44.35°N, 1.73°ELower Freshwater Molasse — 46.88°N, 7.11°ELefkon — 41.17°N, 23.50°EHeadon Hill — 50.72°N, 1.22°WHeadon Hill — 50.71°N, 1.40°WHeadon Hill — 50.72°N, 1.59°WWiesbaden — 50.04°N, 8.27°ETudela — 42.06°N, 1.55°WTudela — 42.07°N, 1.61°WBorgloon — 50.85°N, 4.82°EReuver clay — 50.90°N, 6.45°EKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WVille — 50.90°N, 6.45°EPerriere — 44.35°N, 1.73°ESajovolgyi — 47.97°N, 19.69°ELaa — 48.37°N, 16.35°ELignite-Sandstone — 40.92°N, 26.81°ELignite-Sandstone — 41.00°N, 26.82°EColombacci — 44.22°N, 11.77°EGaverdovsky — 44.61°N, 40.03°EBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WBrackwater Molasse — 48.48°N, 10.10°ETienen — 50.82°N, 5.10°ECalcaire de Saint-Ouen — 49.13°N, 3.35°E

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The named rock units Anguinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 40 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 371 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Anguinae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Anguinae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

3,059 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 360 sites for Anguinae, 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

169 references

Each of the 537 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. 157 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 Anguinae

Credit
NatalieK
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
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 itFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.