Phrynosomatidae

The Phrynosomatidae are a diverse family of lizards found from Panama to the extreme south of Canada. Many members of the group are adapted to life in hot, sandy deserts, although the spiny lizards prefer rocky deserts or even relatively moist forest edges, and the short-horned lizard lives in prairie or sagebrush environments. The group includes both oviparous (egg-laying) and viviparous species, with the latter being more common in species living at high elevations. Oviparous and viviparous species of Phrynosomatidae lizards co-localize in certain areas of the United States, including New Mexico. The earliest fossil remains of this group are known from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia and belong to the genus Desertiguana. As phrynosomatids are only known from North America, these remains indicate that phrynosomatids likely had a wider distribution in prehistoric times.

Phrynosomatidae

Charles J. Sharp · 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
PleurodontaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 71 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 210 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 14 ka.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 6 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesOligocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesMiocene — about 4 of 6 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 6 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–8.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.5–5.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.8–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence72.2 Mya210 ka85 Mya0 Mya

6 occurrences of Phrynosomatidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

6 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

Dove Spring — 35.30°N, 118.50°WBaruungoyot — 43.49°N, 101.13°EArikaree — 43.20°N, 108.20°W

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The named rock units Phrynosomatidae 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.

Phrynosomatidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Phrynosomatidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

126 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Phrynosomatidae, 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 6 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 doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Phrynosomatidae

Credit
Charles J. Sharp
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Phrynosomatidae 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 itPleurodonta through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fitzinger 1843