Pituophis

Pituophis is a genus of nonvenomous colubrid snakes, commonly referred to as gopher snakes, pine snakes, and bullsnakes, which are endemic to North America. They are often yellow or cream in color with dark spots and a dark line across their face. Some species can exceed seven feet in length. Gopher snakes can live for 15 years. The gopher snake is commonly misidentified as a rattlesnake because of its similar coloration and its defensive behavior when feeling threatened. A scared gopher snake will flatten its head, hiss loudly, and shake its tail rapidly, doing a very convincing rattlesnake imitation.

Pituophis

Awkonradi · 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
gopher snakePBDB
Sits inside
ColubrinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 9.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 9.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 12.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 5 of 40 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 40 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 30 of 40 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 40 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 0.3 occurrences9.1–8.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.7–8.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.2–7.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.8–7.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.4–6.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.1–5.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.6–5.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.2–4.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.8–4.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.3–3.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.9–3.5 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.5–3.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.6–2.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.2–1.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.7–1.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.3–867 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences867 ka–433 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences433 ka–0 Mya — about 20 occurrences9.4 Mya11.7 ka13 Mya0 Mya

40 occurrences of Pituophis 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

40 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

8 formations

Kingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WAlamosa — 37.37°N, 105.75°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WBidahochi — 35.80°N, 110.10°WRingold — 47.00°N, 118.50°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WCrooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WAsh Hollow — 42.63°N, 100.05°W

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The named rock units Pituophis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 28 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pituophis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Pituophis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

890 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 39 sites for Pituophis, 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

27 references

Each of the 40 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. 15 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 Pituophis

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

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
PITUOPHIS MELANOLEUCUS · UMMZ:Herps:240648

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 itColubrinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Holbrook 1842