Tropidoclonion
Tropidoclonion is a genus of snake in the subfamily Natricinae of the family Colubridae. The genus is monotypic, containing the sole species Tropidoclonion lineatum, commonly known as the lined snake. The species is native to the central United States.

Dawson · CC BY-SA 2.5 · 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
- NatricinaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota
Time the record covers
At least 8 million years on record.
The record covers at least 9.4 Mya to 1.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 12.5 Mya to 210 ka.
4 occurrences of Tropidoclonion on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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
4 occurrences- Miocene25%
- Pleistocene75%
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
2 formations
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Tropidoclonion 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.
Tropidoclonion and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Tropidoclonion and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
134 taxa- Ambystoma tigrinum3 sites
- Bufo3 sites
- Colubrinae3 sites
- Thamnophis3 sites
- Bufo woodhousei2 sites
- Camelops2 sites
- Eumeces2 sites
- Heterodon platyrhinos2 sites
- Lampropeltis getulus2 sites
- Lampropeltis triangulum2 sites
- Microtus ochrogaster2 sites
- Microtus pennsylvanicus2 sites
- Mylohyus fossilis2 sites
- Natricinae2 sites
- Nerodia sipedon2 sites
- Onychomys2 sites
- Rana pipiens2 sites
- Spea bombifrons2 sites
- Spermophilus tridecemlineatus2 sites
- Urocitellus richardsonii2 sites
- Acris1 site
- Agkistrodon1 site
- Alilepus1 site
- Allophaiomys pliocaenicus1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Tropidoclonion, 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
3 references- Herpetofauna of the Sandahl Local fauna (Pleistocene: Illinoian) of Kansas2
- Fossil snakes of the Clarendonian (late Miocene) Pratt Slide local fauna of Nebraska, with the description of a new natricine colubrid1
- A mid-Pleistocene (Irvingtonian) herpetofauna from a cave in southcentral Texas1
Each of the 4 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 content1
Picture of Tropidoclonion
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Dawson
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 2.5
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Tropidoclonion 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 itNatricinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1860