Peltosaurus

Peltosaurus is an extinct genus of anguid lizard from North America that lived from the Eocene to the Miocene. Peltosaurus belongs to the anguid subfamily Glyptosaurinae. The type species Peltosaurus granulosus was named in 1873 by American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope. Many additional species have been named, but most have been reassigned to different genera. For example, Peltosaurus piger, named in 1928, was reclassified as Odaxosaurus piger, and P. jepseni, named in 1942 from the Paleocene of Wyoming, but was later reclassified as Proxestops jepseni. In 1955 a new species, Peltosaurus macrodon, was named from the Eocene of California. Lizard bones from the Late Miocene of Nebraska were attributed to a new species of Peltosaurus called P. minimus in 1976, extending the fossil range of Peltosaurus and Glyptosaurinae into the Neogene. However, these bones were later referred to a genus of skinks called Eumeces, meaning that the fossil range of Peltosaurus and Glyptosaurinae does not go beyond the Paleogene.

Peltosaurus

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
AnguioideaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 42 million years on record.

The record covers at least 60.9 Mya to 18.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 63.4 Mya to 16.3 Mya.

Paleocene — about 1 of 52 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 13 of 52 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 34 of 52 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 4 of 52 occurrencesMiocene64–63 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences43–41 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–35 Mya — about 5 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 11 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 19 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 2 occurrences30–28 Mya — about 1 occurrence28–27 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 1 occurrence24–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–19 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences60.9 Mya18.5 Mya64.3 Mya15.4 Mya

52 occurrences of Peltosaurus on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

52 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

11 formations

Brule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WBrule — 43.90°N, 102.40°WBrule — 40.74°N, 103.19°WBrule — 40.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 42.48°N, 103.77°WBrule — 43.71°N, 102.58°WBrule — 41.50°N, 103.80°WBrule — 43.63°N, 102.64°WBrule — 42.85°N, 103.82°WBrule — 41.80°N, 103.80°WChadron — 46.10°N, 103.30°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.40°WChadron — 42.40°N, 103.80°WChadron — 43.60°N, 102.45°WChadron — 43.30°N, 102.50°WChadron — 42.86°N, 103.57°WCypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WSespe — 34.30°N, 119.00°WWhite River — 40.10°N, 102.20°WWhite River — 43.79°N, 102.87°WFleming — 31.00°N, 93.40°WHarrison — 42.80°N, 100.80°WBridger — 42.42°N, 109.35°WAlachua — 29.70°N, 82.60°W"Fort Union" (= Lebo) — 45.80°N, 109.80°WMonroe Creek — 43.30°N, 102.50°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Peltosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Peltosaurus and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Peltosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

606 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 52 sites for Peltosaurus, 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

16 references

Each of the 52 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. 4 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 Peltosaurus

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Peltosaurus granulosus · amnh:farb:42913

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 itAnguioidea through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1873