Lacertilia

Lizard is the common name used for all squamate reptiles that are not snakes, encompassing over 7,000 species. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. Extant lizard species vary in size from the 13.5 mm (0.53 in) nano-chameleon and the 14–18 mm (0.55–0.71 in) Jaragua dwarf gecko to the 3-meter-long Komodo dragon.

Lacertilia

Basile Morin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
lizardPBDB
Sits inside
SquamataPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 192 million years on record.

The record covers at least 192.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 227.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 1 of 319 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 319 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 11 of 319 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 13 of 319 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 30 of 319 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 104 of 319 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 11 of 319 occurrencesEocene — about 70 of 319 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 8 of 319 occurrencesMiocene — about 30 of 319 occurrencesPliocene — about 15 of 319 occurrencesPleistocene — about 22 of 319 occurrences232–224 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences224–216 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences216–209 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences209–201 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences201–193 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences193–185 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences170–162 Mya — about 10 occurrences162–155 Mya — about 3 occurrences155–147 Mya — about 5 occurrences147–139 Mya — about 10 occurrences139–131 Mya — about 1 occurrence131–124 Mya — about 5 occurrences124–116 Mya — about 9 occurrences116–108 Mya — about 8 occurrences108–100 Mya — about 1 occurrence100–93 Mya — about 7 occurrences93–85 Mya — about 4 occurrences85–77 Mya — about 34 occurrences77–70 Mya — about 40 occurrences70–62 Mya — about 20 occurrences62–54 Mya — about 29 occurrences54–46 Mya — about 37 occurrences46–39 Mya — about 10 occurrences39–31 Mya — about 7 occurrences31–23 Mya — about 4 occurrences23–15 Mya — about 14 occurrences15–7.7 Mya — about 13 occurrences7.7–0 Mya — about 44 occurrences192.9 Mya11.7 ka232 Mya0 Mya

319 occurrences of Lacertilia on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

319 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

109 formations

Willwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 109.93°WWillwood — 44.59°N, 108.86°WWillwood — 44.42°N, 108.69°WWillwood — 44.44°N, 108.63°WWillwood — 44.56°N, 108.70°WWillwood — 44.51°N, 108.68°WWillwood — 44.63°N, 108.50°WWillwood — 44.59°N, 108.41°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.90°WWillwood — 44.41°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.35°N, 108.75°WWillwood — 44.68°N, 108.73°WWillwood — 44.52°N, 108.65°WWillwood — 44.60°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.67°N, 108.80°WDinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.49°WDinosaur Park — 50.79°N, 111.62°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.46°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.40°WDinosaur Park — 50.78°N, 111.33°WMorrison — 40.42°N, 109.21°WMorrison — 41.89°N, 106.00°WMorrison — 38.54°N, 105.21°WMorrison — 40.44°N, 109.32°WMorrison — 41.98°N, 106.15°WMorrison — 39.15°N, 108.77°WMorrison — 39.15°N, 108.77°WMorrison — 39.07°N, 108.73°WMorrison — 40.30°N, 108.57°WBaruungoyot — 43.49°N, 101.28°EBaruungoyot — 43.50°N, 101.07°EBaruungoyot — 43.52°N, 109.12°EBaruungoyot — 43.32°N, 99.83°EBaruungoyot — 43.49°N, 99.83°EDjangura — 43.94°N, 41.50°EPui Beds — 45.49°N, 23.09°EDjadokhta — 44.13°N, 103.56°EDjadokhta — 44.09°N, 102.91°EDjadokhta — 44.05°N, 102.82°EDjadokhta — 44.23°N, 103.30°EOldman — 50.75°N, 111.51°WOldman — 50.83°N, 111.32°WOldman — 49.28°N, 112.58°WJbel Guersif — 31.61°N, 5.66°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WElisabeth Bay — 26.98°S, 15.27°EVitoria — 42.66°N, 2.63°WAguja — 29.20°N, 103.55°WAguja — 29.10°N, 103.17°WNemegt — 43.48°N, 99.80°ENemegt — 43.87°N, 100.01°ENemegt — 43.86°N, 100.23°ESespe — 34.30°N, 119.00°WAntlers — 33.28°N, 97.62°WAntlers — 33.50°N, 97.58°WAntlers — 34.15°N, 95.82°WCollón Cura — 40.39°S, 70.21°WCollón Cura — 42.65°S, 69.70°WKsar Metlili — 32.70°N, 3.22°WFruitland/Kirtland — 36.17°N, 107.96°WFruitland/Kirtland — 36.27°N, 108.21°WBissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°ELa Huérguina — 40.12°N, 1.97°WLa Huérguina — 40.22°N, 1.98°WHell Creek — 46.47°N, 104.02°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 104.92°WIlek — 55.97°N, 88.09°EIlek — 55.88°N, 88.32°EIlek — 56.57°N, 91.85°ESan Jose — 36.50°N, 107.00°WSan Jose — 36.24°N, 107.10°W

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The named rock units Lacertilia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 85 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 56 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lacertilia and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Lacertilia and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

2,765 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 284 sites for Lacertilia, 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

174 references

Each of the 319 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. 162 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 Lacertilia

Credit
Basile Morin
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Lacertilia was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itSquamata through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Owen 1842)