Gerrhonotus

Gerrhonotus is a genus of anguid lizards that are commonly referred to as alligator lizards, due to a vague resemblance to an alligator. Most species are restricted to Mexico, but a few range into Guatemala or Texas, and G. rhombifer is from Costa Rica and Panama. Along with glass lizards (Ophisaurus) and many other lizards, alligator lizards have the ability to regrow their tail.

Gerrhonotus

The original uploader was Dawson at English Wikipedia . · CC BY-SA 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
Also called
alligator lizardPBDB
Sits inside
GerrhonotinaePBDB
Diet
insectivore, carnivorePBDB, for Anguidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 65 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 210 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 2 of 22 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 22 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 2 of 22 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 22 occurrencesMiocene — about 12 of 22 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 22 occurrencesPleistocene — about 4 of 22 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences64–61 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences59–56 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 1 occurrence54–52 Mya — about 1 occurrence52–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 4 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 4 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–9.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences9.8–7.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences66 Mya210 ka74 Mya0 Mya

22 occurrences of Gerrhonotus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

22 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

10 formations

Arikaree — 43.20°N, 108.20°WArikaree — 43.20°N, 107.10°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 42.81°N, 100.05°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WRunningwater — 42.37°N, 103.32°WOgallala — 39.08°N, 99.75°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°W"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WFort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WMontezuma — 37.99°N, 121.71°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.10°W

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The named rock units Gerrhonotus 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.

Gerrhonotus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Gerrhonotus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

687 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Gerrhonotus, 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

15 references

Each of the 22 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. 3 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 content2

Picture of Gerrhonotus

Credit
The original uploader was Dawson at English Wikipedia .
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Gerrhonotus lugoi · LACM:Herps:116254

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 itGerrhonotinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wiegmann 1828