diff --git a/pandas/core/dtypes/cast.py b/pandas/core/dtypes/cast.py
index f6561948df99a..6c4a801155899 100644
--- a/pandas/core/dtypes/cast.py
+++ b/pandas/core/dtypes/cast.py
@@ -1075,7 +1075,7 @@ def find_common_type(types):
 
     Parameters
     ----------
-    types : list of dtypes
+    types :  list_like
 
     Returns
     -------
@@ -1090,7 +1090,7 @@ def find_common_type(types):
     if len(types) == 0:
         raise ValueError('no types given')
 
-    first = types[0]
+    first = [t for t in types][0]
 
     # workaround for find_common_type([np.dtype('datetime64[ns]')] * 2)
     # => object