Colubriformes

The Colubroides are a clade in the suborder Serpentes (snakes). It contains over 85% of all the extant species of snakes. The largest family is Colubridae, but it also includes at least six other families, at least four of which were once classified as "Colubridae" before molecular phylogenetics helped in understanding their relationships. It has been found to be monophyletic.

A picture published with the record for Colubriformes. What it shows has not been checked.

Jon Fife · 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
Sits inside
ColubroidesPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 10 million years on record.

The record covers at least 13.82 Mya to 3.55 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 1.8 Mya.

Miocene — about 3 of 14 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 11 of 14 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 14 occurrencesPleistocene16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.4–7.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.9–7.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.4–6.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.9–6.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.4–5.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.9–5.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.3–4.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.8–4.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.3–3.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.8–3.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.3–2.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.8–2.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.3–1.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.8–1.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13.82 Mya3.55 Mya16.5 Mya1.3 Mya

14 occurrences of Colubriformes on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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

14 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

3 formations

Spilia — 41.15°N, 23.48°ELefkon — 41.17°N, 23.50°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 47.25°N, 8.62°E

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The named rock units Colubriformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Colubriformes and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Colubriformes and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

149 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Colubriformes, 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 14 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 content2

Picture of Colubriformes

Credit
Jon Fife
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Colubriformes indet. · pimuz:A/III 191

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

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 itColubroides through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Günther 1864