Thamnophis

Garter snake is the common name for small to medium-sized snakes belonging to the genus Thamnophis in the family Colubridae. They are native to North and Central America, ranging from central Canada in the north to Costa Rica in the south.

Thamnophis

Uncredited · 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
garter snakePBDB
Sits inside
ColubridaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, piscivorePBDB
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 12 million years on record.

The record covers at least 12.5 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 16.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 17 of 105 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 15 of 105 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 73 of 105 occurrencesPleistocene17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences10–9.5 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.5–9.0 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences9.0–8.4 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences8.4–7.8 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences7.8–7.3 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences7.3–6.7 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences6.7–6.2 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences6.2–5.6 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences5.6–5.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.0–4.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.5–3.9 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.9–3.4 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.4–2.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.8–2.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.2–1.7 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.7–1.1 Mya — about 9 occurrences1.1–560 ka Mya — about 16 occurrences560 ka–0 Mya — about 41 occurrences12.5 Mya129 ka16.8 Mya0 Mya

105 occurrences of Thamnophis 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

105 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

18 formations

Alamosa — 37.37°N, 105.75°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WKingsdown — 37.04°N, 100.48°WRexroad — 37.10°N, 100.90°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WLong Pine — 42.38°N, 98.23°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 101.89°WAsh Hollow — 42.63°N, 100.05°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WValentine — 42.81°N, 100.05°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.49°N, 98.11°WGood Creek — 34.00°N, 99.80°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WBidahochi — 35.80°N, 110.10°WOgallala — 39.08°N, 99.75°WRingold — 47.00°N, 118.50°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WVerde — 34.50°N, 112.50°WBallard — 37.20°N, 100.30°WCrooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WVanheim — 37.18°N, 100.28°WMcPherson — 38.30°N, 97.60°WFort Randall — 43.49°N, 99.27°W

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The named rock units Thamnophis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 59 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Thamnophis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Thamnophis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,566 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 88 sites for Thamnophis, 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

57 references

Each of the 105 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. 45 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 Thamnophis

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Synchrotron Imaging scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Thamnophis sirtalis · PC-GD:THSI

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 itColubridae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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