Lacerta viridis

The European green lizard is a large lizard distributed across European mid-latitudes from Slovenia and eastern Austria to as far east as the Black Sea coasts of Ukraine and Turkey. It is often seen sunning on rocks or lawns, or sheltering amongst bushes.

Lacerta viridis

Uncredited · 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
European green lizardPBDB
Sits inside
LacertaPBDB
Diet
insectivore, carnivorePBDB, for Lacertidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Lacertidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 16.9 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 4 of 22 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 22 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 12 of 22 occurrencesPleistocene17–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.3–8.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.7–8.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.1–7.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.5–7.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.0–6.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.4–5.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.8–5.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.2–4.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.6–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–3.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.5–2.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.9–2.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.3–1.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.7–1.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.2–580 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences580 ka–0 Mya — about 8 occurrences15.98 Mya11.7 ka17.4 Mya0 Mya

22 occurrences of Lacerta viridis 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

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

1 formation

Capo Mannu dune complex — 40.03°N, 8.40°E

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The named rock units Lacerta viridis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 21 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lacerta viridis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Lacerta viridis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

440 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Lacerta viridis, 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

12 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. 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 Lacerta viridis

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Lacerta viridis 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 itLacerta through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Laurenti 1768)