Dipsosaurus dorsalis

The desert iguana is an iguana species found in the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts of the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, as well as on several Gulf of California islands.

Dipsosaurus dorsalis

Wilson44691 · CC0 · 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
Desert iguanaPBDB
Sits inside
DipsosaurusPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Iguanidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Iguanidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 4.5 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 4.7 Mya and 210 ka, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Pliocene — about 0 of 1 occurrencePliocenePleistocene — about 1 of 1 occurrencePleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 1 occurrence4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.0–867 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.2 Mya0 Mya

1 occurrence of Dipsosaurus dorsalis on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

1 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

Palm Springs — 32.97°N, 116.13°W

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The named rock units Dipsosaurus dorsalis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Dipsosaurus dorsalis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Dipsosaurus dorsalis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

9 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Dipsosaurus dorsalis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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 Dipsosaurus dorsalis

Credit
Wilson44691
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Dipsosaurus dorsalis · UMMZ:Herps:229735

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 itDipsosaurus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Baird and Girard 1852