Xenopus

Xenopus is a genus of highly aquatic frogs native to sub-Saharan Africa. Twenty species are currently described within it. The two best-known species of this genus are Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis, which are commonly studied as model organisms for developmental biology, cell biology, toxicology, neuroscience and for modelling human disease and birth defects.

Xenopus

Uncredited · Public Domain · 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
clawed frogPBDB
Sits inside
PipidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 46 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 59.24 Mya to 774 ka.

Paleocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesEocene — about 1 of 6 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 6 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 1 of 6 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 6 occurrences60–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–8.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.1–6.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.0–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–2.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.0–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence48.07 Mya1.8 Mya60 Mya0 Mya

6 occurrences of Xenopus on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

6 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

2 formations

Olduvai — 2.98°S, 35.37°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.34°ENsungwe — 8.90°S, 33.45°E

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The named rock units Xenopus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Xenopus and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Xenopus and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

76 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Xenopus, 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

6 references

Each of the 6 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 Xenopus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
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 itPipidae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wagler 1827