Palaeosaniwa canadensis
Palaeosaniwa is an extinct genus of carnivorous lizard from the Late Cretaceous of North America. The type species, Palaeosaniwa canadensis, given by Charles Whitney Gilmore in 1928, means "ancient Saniwa from Canada".

Skye McDavid · 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- Sits inside
- PalaeosaniwaPBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota
Time the record covers
At most 18 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 83.6 Mya and 66 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
22 occurrences of Palaeosaniwa canadensis on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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- Late Cretaceous100%
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
8 formations
- Oldman Formation · Belly River Group12
- Hell Creek Formation2
- Lance Formation2
- Foremost Formation · Belly River Group1
- Dinosaur Park Formation · Belly River Group1
- Cerro del Pueblo Formation · Difunta Group1
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The named rock units Palaeosaniwa canadensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Palaeosaniwa canadensis and its relatives
Late CretaceousWhere Palaeosaniwa canadensis and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.
Found in the same rock
175 taxa- Ceratopsidae15 sites
- Trionychidae15 sites
- Anura14 sites
- Baenidae14 sites
- Champsosaurus14 sites
- Crocodylia14 sites
- Hadrosauridae14 sites
- Estesesox foxi13 sites
- Teleostei13 sites
- Holostei12 sites
- Lepisosteus occidentalis12 sites
- Multituberculata12 sites
- Opisthotriton kayi12 sites
- Saurornitholestes langstoni12 sites
- Scapherpeton tectum12 sites
- Tyrannosauridae12 sites
- Chelydridae11 sites
- Coriops amnicolus11 sites
- Amiidae10 sites
- Aves10 sites
- Leptochamops10 sites
- Myledaphus bipartitus10 sites
- Paronychodon10 sites
- Albanerpeton9 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Palaeosaniwa canadensis, 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
8 references- Vertebrate microsite assemblages (exclusive of mammals) from the Foremost and Oldman Formations of the Judith River Group (Campanian) of southeastern Alberta: an illustrated guide12
- Fossil lizards of North America4
- New Lizard Specimens from the Campanian Wapiti Formation of Alberta, Canada1
- Microvertebrados Cretácicos Tardíos del Área de El Rosario, Baja California, México [Late Cretaceous microvertebrates from the El Rosario area, Baja California, Mexico]1
- Fossil Vertebrates from the Cerro del Pueblo Formation, Coahuila, Mexico, and the Distribution of Late Campanian (Cretaceous) Terrestrial Vertebrate Faunas1
- Fossil Vertebrate Collections1
- Patterns of geographic variation in latest Cretaceous vertebrates: evidence from the turtle component1
- Taxonomy and evolution of Late Cretaceous lizards (Reptilia: Squamata) from western Canada1
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 content2
Picture of Palaeosaniwa canadensis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Skye McDavid
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Credit
- Yale Peabody Museum
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
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 itPalaeosaniwa through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gilmore 1928