Diadophis punctatus

Diadophis punctatus, commonly known as the ring-necked snake or ringneck snake, is a small, harmless species of colubrid snake found throughout much of the United States, as well as south in Central Mexico and as far north as Nova Scotia, Canada. Ring-necked snakes are generally fossorial and somewhat secretive, by nature, and, as a nocturnal species, are rarely seen during the daytime. These snakes are believed to be fairly abundant throughout most of their range, though no scientific evaluation supports this hypothesis. Scientific research is lacking for the species, despite their apparently common status, and more in-depth investigations are greatly needed. It is the only species within the genus Diadophis and, currently, 14 subspecies are identified, though many herpetologists question the morphologically based classifications.

Diadophis punctatus

Benjamin Genter · Public Domain · 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
DiadophisPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Diadophis
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Diadophis
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 81 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 210 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 1.4 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Pleistocene — about 7 of 7 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 7 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.3–1.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.1–1.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.0–950 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences950 ka–887 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences887 ka–823 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences823 ka–760 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences760 ka–697 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences697 ka–633 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences633 ka–570 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences570 ka–507 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences507 ka–443 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences443 ka–380 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences380 ka–317 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences317 ka–253 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253 ka–190 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences190 ka–127 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences127 ka–63 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences63 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences210 ka – 129 ka1.9 Mya0 Mya

7 occurrences of Diadophis punctatus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

7 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

Kingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°W

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The named rock units Diadophis punctatus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Diadophis punctatus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Diadophis punctatus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

381 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Diadophis punctatus, 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

7 references

Each of the 7 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 content1

Picture of Diadophis punctatus

Credit
Benjamin Genter
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Diadophis punctatus 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 itDiadophis through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus