Bothrops

Bothrops is a genus of highly venomous pit vipers endemic to the Neotropics. The generic name, Bothrops, is derived from the Greek words βόθρος, bothros, meaning "pit", and ὄψ, ops, meaning "eye" or "face", together an allusion to the heat-sensitive loreal pit organs. Members of this genus are responsible for more human deaths in the Americas than any other group of venomous snakes. Currently, 48 species are recognized.

Bothrops

Cláudio Timm · CC BY-SA 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
pit viperPBDB
Sits inside
ViperidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Viperidae
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Viperidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Viperidae

Time the record covers

At least 3.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.8 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPliocene — about 2 of 3 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 1 of 3 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 3 occurrences5.1–5.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.0–4.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.8–4.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.6–4.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.4–4.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.0–3.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences183 ka–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.8 Mya129 ka5.5 Mya0 Mya

3 occurrences of Bothrops on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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

3 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

1 formation

Monte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°W

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The named rock units Bothrops 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.

Bothrops and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Bothrops and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

163 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Bothrops, 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

3 references

Each of the 3 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Bothrops

Credit
Cláudio Timm
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Bothrops 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 itViperidae through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wagler 1824