Cnemidophorus

Cnemidophorus is a genus of lizards in the family Teiidae. Species in the genus Cnemidophorus are commonly referred to as whiptail lizards or racerunners. The genus is native to South America, Central America, and the West Indies.

Cnemidophorus

Bjørn Christian Tørrissen · 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
whiptail lizardPBDB
Sits inside
TeiiniPBDB
Diet
insectivore, carnivorePBDB, for Teiidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Teiidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 12 million years on record.

The record covers at least 12.5 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 16.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 8 of 23 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 23 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 13 of 23 occurrencesPleistocene17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences10–9.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences9.5–9.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.0–8.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.4–7.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.8–7.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.3–6.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.7–6.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.2–5.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.6–5.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.0–4.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.5–3.9 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.9–3.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.4–2.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.8–2.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.2–1.7 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.7–1.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.1–560 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences560 ka–0 Mya — about 8 occurrences12.5 Mya129 ka16.8 Mya0 Mya

23 occurrences of Cnemidophorus 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

23 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

Rexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WBidahochi — 35.80°N, 110.10°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WOgallala — 39.08°N, 99.75°WTorreya — 30.50°N, 84.50°WCrooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WMcPherson — 38.30°N, 97.60°W

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The named rock units Cnemidophorus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cnemidophorus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Cnemidophorus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

684 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Cnemidophorus, 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

21 references

Each of the 23 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. 9 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 Cnemidophorus

Credit
Bjørn Christian Tørrissen
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cnemidophorus 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 itTeiini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wagler 1830