Plestiodon

Plestiodon is a genus of lizards in the family Scincidae (skinks). The genus contains many species formerly classified under the genus Eumeces, except those now placed in Mesoscincus. They are secretive, agile animals with a cylindrical body covered with smooth, shiny scales. They are distributed from East Asia to throughout North America from southern Canada south to Mexico, including oceanic islands such as Bermuda.

Plestiodon

Kris Kelley · 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
Also called
skinkPBDB
Sits inside
ScincidaePBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Scincidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Scincidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 6.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 9.4 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 12.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 2 of 3 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 3 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 3 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences10–10.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences10.0–9.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.5–9.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.2–1.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.7–1.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.3–867 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences867 ka–433 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences433 ka–0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.4 Mya2.58 Mya13 Mya0 Mya

3 occurrences of Plestiodon on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

3 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

1 formation

Ash Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°W

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The named rock units Plestiodon 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.

Plestiodon and its relatives

Miocene

Where Plestiodon and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

110 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Plestiodon, 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

2 references

Each of the 3 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 Plestiodon

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itScincidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dumeril and Bibron 1839