Anguis

Slow worms are a small genus (Anguis) of snake-like legless lizards in the family Anguidae. The genus contains five extant living species, including the common slow worm, the eastern slow worm, the Greek slow worm, the Peloponnese slow worm, and the Italian slow worm. There are also known fossil species.

Anguis

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
Also called
slow wormPBDB
Sits inside
AnguinaePBDB
Diet
insectivore, carnivorePBDB, for Anguidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 48 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 99 occurrencesEocene — about 11 of 99 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 6 of 99 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 21 of 99 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 9 of 99 occurrencesPleistocene — about 44 of 99 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 1 occurrence32–30 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–25 Mya — about 1 occurrence25–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence23–21 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 4 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 5 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 7 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 10 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 45 occurrences48.07 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

99 occurrences of Anguis on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

99 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

9 formations

Sajovolgyi — 47.97°N, 19.69°EUnterer Travertin — 50.97°N, 11.35°EUnterer Travertin — 50.95°N, 11.38°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°EBorgloon — 50.85°N, 4.82°EAkzhar — 48.02°N, 85.38°ESynthem CB1 — 42.79°N, 11.37°EOberer Travertin I — 50.97°N, 11.35°ELefkon — 41.17°N, 23.50°EGaverdovsky — 44.61°N, 40.03°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Anguis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 87 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Anguis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Anguis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,060 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 95 sites for Anguis, 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

39 references

Each of the 99 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. 27 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 content3

Picture of Anguis

Credit
nobody named on the record
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
Anguis fragilis · FMNH:Amphibians and Reptiles:62458

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itAnguinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758