Ophisaurus attenuatus

The slender glass lizard is a legless lizard in the glass lizard subfamily (Anguinae). The species is endemic to the United States. Two subspecies are recognized. The lizard was originally believed to be a subspecies of the eastern glass lizard. Their name comes from their easily broken tail which they can break off themselves without ever being touched. It is difficult to find a specimen with an undamaged tail. The lizard eats a variety of insects and small animals, including smaller lizards. Snakes and other animals are known to prey on the species. Humans have a part in destroying their environment and killing their food supply with insecticides. The lizard is considered to be a least-concern species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), though it is vulnerable in Iowa and endangered in Wisconsin. The streamlined, legless species is often confused with snakes. Glass Lizards, however, differ from snakes as they possess a moveable eyelid, which is absent in snakes. Another way to distinguish glass lizards from snakes is the presence of an external ear opening, which are absent in snakes.

Ophisaurus attenuatus

Peter Paplanus from St. Louis, Missouri · CC BY 2.0 · 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
Slender glass lizardPBDB
Sits inside
OphisaurusPBDB
Diet
insectivore, carnivorePBDB, for Anguidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 9.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 9.4 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 12.5 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 1 of 7 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 7 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 5 of 7 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 7 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–10.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10.0–9.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.5–9.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.8–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–3.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.9–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–3.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–1.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.7–1.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.3–867 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence867 ka–433 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence433 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.4 Mya129 ka13 Mya0 Mya

7 occurrences of Ophisaurus attenuatus 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

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

3 formations

Kingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WOgallala — 39.08°N, 99.75°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°W

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The named rock units Ophisaurus attenuatus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ophisaurus attenuatus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Ophisaurus attenuatus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

230 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Ophisaurus attenuatus, 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

4 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Ophisaurus attenuatus

Credit
Peter Paplanus from St. Louis, Missouri
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ophisaurus attenuatus 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 itOphisaurus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1880