Boavus

Boavus is an extinct genus of boa known primarily from Eocene-aged strata of North America. At least three species are known from the Middle Eocene Green River lagerstätte in Wyoming, two species from Eocene strata of Uinta County, and at least one species is known from the middle to late Eocene-aged Sespe Formation of California. Boavus was a small snake measuring between 1 and 2 metres long.

Boavus

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
BooideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Booidea
Life habit
solitaryPBDB, for Booidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Booidea

Time the record covers

At least 34 million years on record.

The record covers at least 51.1 Mya to 16.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 12.5 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 21 occurrencesEocene — about 18 of 21 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 21 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 1 of 21 occurrencesMiocene57–55 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 1 occurrence51–49 Mya — about 3 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 3 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 3 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 1 occurrence45–43 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence33–31 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51.1 Mya16.3 Mya56.9 Mya11.6 Mya

21 occurrences of Boavus on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

21 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

8 formations

Bridger — 42.37°N, 108.91°WBridger — 42.42°N, 109.35°WBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WBridger — 41.27°N, 110.34°WBridger — 41.04°N, 110.23°WSespe — 34.30°N, 119.00°WWind River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WBrule — 45.50°N, 103.10°WBrule — 40.93°N, 103.32°WWasatch — 42.37°N, 108.91°WFleming — 30.50°N, 95.00°WWagon Bed ("Tepee Trail") — 43.20°N, 107.10°WGreen River — 41.84°N, 110.70°W

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The named rock units Boavus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Boavus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Boavus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

362 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Boavus, 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

10 references

Each of the 21 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 Boavus

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itBooidea through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Marsh 1871