Anilius scytale
The Aniliidae are a monotypic family created for the monotypic genus Anilius that contains the single species Anilius scytale. Common names include the American pipe snake and false coral snake. It is found in South America. This snake possesses a vestigial pelvic girdle that is visible as a pair of cloacal spurs. It is ovoviviparous. It is non-venomous, and its diet consists mainly of amphibians and other reptiles. Two subspecies are recognized, including the nominate subspecies described here.
DuSantos · CC BY 2.0 · 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
- Coral pipe snakesPBDB
- Sits inside
- AniliusPBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota
Time the record covers
At most 1.1 million years on record.
The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 3.6 Mya and 2.58 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.
1 occurrence of Anilius scytale on record, most of them in the Pliocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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 occurrences- Pliocene100%
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
1 formation
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Anilius scytale has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Anilius scytale and its relatives
PlioceneWhere Anilius scytale and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.
Found in the same rock
59 taxa- Actinopterygii1 site
- Alethinophidia1 site
- Anura1 site
- Boidae1 site
- Boreostemma1 site
- Caimaninae1 site
- Callichthyidae1 site
- Cardiatherium1 site
- Caviodon1 site
- Caviomorpha1 site
- cf. Amblydoras sp.1 site
- cf. Megaleporinus sp.1 site
- cf. Platysilurus sp.1 site
- cf. Sciades sp.1 site
- cf. Scorpiodoras sp.1 site
- Chelonoidis1 site
- Chelus1 site
- Cichlidae1 site
- Colubroides1 site
- Corallus1 site
- Crocodylia1 site
- Cyonasua1 site
- Didelphis1 site
- Doradidae1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Anilius scytale, 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
1 referenceEach of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content2
Picture of Anilius scytale
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- DuSantos
- Licence
- CC BY 2.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- ANILIUS SCYTALE · NHMUK:ZOO:1855.5.28.23
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Anilius”
- 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 itAnilius through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linneaus 1758