Varanoidea

Varanoidea is a superfamily of lizards, including the well-known family Varanidae. Also included in the Varanoidea are the Lanthanotidae, and the extinct Palaeovaranidae.

Varanoidea

No machine-readable author provided. LiquidGhoul assumed (based on copyright claims). · 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
PlatynotaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 119 million years on record.

The record covers at least 119.57 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 331 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 66 of 331 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 5 of 331 occurrencesEocene — about 83 of 331 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 10 of 331 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 74 of 331 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 16 of 331 occurrencesPleistocene — about 54 of 331 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences120–115 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences103–98 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences98–94 Mya — about 1 occurrence94–90 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences90–86 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences86–81 Mya — about 9 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 17 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 17 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 13 occurrences68–64 Mya — about 7 occurrences64–60 Mya — about 3 occurrences60–56 Mya — about 5 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 31 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 24 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 12 occurrences43–38 Mya — about 9 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 4 occurrences34–30 Mya — about 5 occurrences30–26 Mya — about 4 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 3 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 9 occurrences17–13 Mya — about 28 occurrences13–8.6 Mya — about 19 occurrences8.6–4.3 Mya — about 24 occurrences4.3–0 Mya — about 84 occurrences119.57 Mya11.7 ka128 Mya0 Mya

331 occurrences of Varanoidea on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

331 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

89 formations

Oldman — 49.10°N, 110.94°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.84°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.68°WOldman — 49.16°N, 110.72°WOldman — 50.70°N, 111.50°WBridger — 42.37°N, 108.91°WBridger — 42.42°N, 109.35°WBridger — 42.70°N, 110.10°WBridger — 41.28°N, 110.03°WBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WBridger — 41.60°N, 109.97°WBridger — 41.04°N, 110.23°WSan Jose — 36.50°N, 107.00°WSan Jose — 36.24°N, 107.10°WSan Jose — 36.37°N, 107.00°WSan Jose — 36.41°N, 107.08°WSan Jose — 36.24°N, 106.95°WSan Jose — 36.18°N, 106.99°WDjadokhta — 44.22°N, 103.27°EDjadokhta — 43.66°N, 100.90°EDjadokhta — 43.65°N, 100.78°EDjadokhta — 44.00°N, 104.00°EDjadokhta — 44.09°N, 102.91°EWillwood — 44.78°N, 108.97°WWillwood — 44.85°N, 109.17°WWillwood — 43.95°N, 107.57°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WUinta — 40.13°N, 109.52°WUinta — 40.11°N, 109.22°WUinta — 40.20°N, 109.90°WUinta — 40.08°N, 109.27°WUinta — 40.07°N, 109.70°WWind River — 43.13°N, 104.07°WWind River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WLance — 43.35°N, 104.48°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WWasatch — 42.37°N, 108.91°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WFriars — 32.90°N, 117.10°WNubia — 16.25°N, 33.75°EMaboko — 0.17°N, 34.62°EFort Union — 41.30°N, 107.74°WFort Union — 45.80°N, 109.80°WForemost — 50.07°N, 111.14°WForemost — 49.13°N, 110.87°WGreen River — 40.20°N, 109.90°WGreen River — 41.78°N, 110.73°WGreen River — 41.67°N, 110.67°WBaruungoyot — 43.49°N, 101.13°EBaruungoyot — 43.32°N, 99.83°EJebel Qatrani — 29.45°N, 30.58°EKanapoi — 2.37°N, 36.08°EHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 45.01°N, 103.16°WDjadokhta — 41.70°N, 106.80°ETienen — 50.82°N, 5.10°ESespe — 34.30°N, 119.00°WMarnes d'Auzas — 43.20°N, 0.95°ELignites de Soissonais — 49.05°N, 4.00°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Varanoidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 65 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 148 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Varanoidea and its relatives

Eocene

Where Varanoidea and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

3,419 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 292 sites for Varanoidea, and this reads 240 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

173 references

Each of the 331 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. 161 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 Varanoidea

Credit
No machine-readable author provided. LiquidGhoul assumed (based on copyright claims).
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Varanoidea indet. · Varanoidea

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 itPlatynota through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gray 1827)