Colubrinae

The Colubrinae are a subfamily of snakes within the family Colubridae. It includes numerous genera, and although taxonomic sources often disagree on the exact number, the Reptile Database lists 717 species in 92 genera as of September 2019. It is the second largest subfamily of colubrids, after Dipsadinae. Many of the most commonly known snakes are members of this subfamily, including rat snakes, king snakes, milk snakes, vine snakes, and indigo snakes.

Colubrinae

Atanas Grozdanov · CC BY 2.5 · 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
ColubridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Colubridae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Colubridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 33 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 37.71 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 1 of 734 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 19 of 734 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 270 of 734 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 105 of 734 occurrencesPleistocene — about 326 of 734 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence33–32 Mya — about 3 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 3 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 3 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 2 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 3 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 5 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 8 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 14 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 29 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 31 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 27 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 35 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 24 occurrences10–9.0 Mya — about 17 occurrences9.0–7.7 Mya — about 22 occurrences7.7–6.4 Mya — about 27 occurrences6.4–5.1 Mya — about 29 occurrences5.1–3.8 Mya — about 47 occurrences3.8–2.6 Mya — about 52 occurrences2.6–1.3 Mya — about 77 occurrences1.3–0 Mya — about 262 occurrences33.9 Mya11.7 ka38.5 Mya0 Mya

734 occurrences of Colubrinae 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

734 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

66 formations

Ash Hollow — 41.30°N, 101.89°WAsh Hollow — 43.40°N, 100.60°WAsh Hollow — 42.63°N, 100.05°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WKingsdown — 37.04°N, 100.50°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.81°N, 100.05°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.49°N, 98.11°WRexroad — 37.10°N, 100.90°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.44°N, 11.04°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.63°N, 11.80°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.66°N, 10.23°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.16°N, 10.11°EArikaree — 43.20°N, 108.20°WArikaree — 43.20°N, 107.10°Wfacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°ELong Pine — 42.38°N, 98.23°WSajovolgyi — 47.97°N, 19.69°EOgallala — 39.08°N, 99.75°WOgallala — 39.80°N, 99.40°WFleming — 30.70°N, 94.70°WFleming — 30.50°N, 95.00°WFleming — 30.80°N, 94.30°WCrooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WFort Randall — 43.10°N, 98.30°WFort Randall — 43.53°N, 99.13°WMost — 50.42°N, 13.36°ERingold — 47.00°N, 118.50°WWood Mountain — 49.17°N, 105.99°WVille — 50.90°N, 6.45°EKanapoi — 2.37°N, 36.08°EBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WWicomico — 29.42°N, 82.22°WWiesbaden — 50.04°N, 8.27°EElisabeth Bay — 26.96°S, 15.30°EEdelény — 48.39°N, 20.64°EBidahochi — 35.80°N, 110.10°W

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The named rock units Colubrinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 42 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 504 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Colubrinae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Colubrinae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

3,378 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 362 sites for Colubrinae, and this reads 240 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

211 references

Each of the 734 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. 199 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 Colubrinae

Credit
Atanas Grozdanov
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itColubridae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Oppel 1811)