Albanerpetontidae

The Albanerpetontidae are an extinct family of small amphibians, native to the Northern Hemisphere during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. The only members of the order Allocaudata, they are thought to be allied with living amphibians belonging to Lissamphibia. Despite a superficially salamander-like bodyform, their anatomy is strongly divergent from modern amphibians in numerous aspects. The fossil record of albanerpetontids spans over 160 million years from the Middle Jurassic to the beginning of the Pleistocene, about 2.13–2 million years ago.

Albanerpetontidae

Hemiauchenia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
LissamphibiaPBDB
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 161 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 3.55 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 1.8 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 7 of 288 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 10 of 288 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 33 of 288 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 186 of 288 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 6 of 288 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 288 occurrencesOligocene — about 7 of 288 occurrencesMiocene — about 36 of 288 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 288 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 288 occurrences172–166 Mya — about 6 occurrences166–160 Mya — about 1 occurrence160–154 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences154–149 Mya — about 6 occurrences149–143 Mya — about 5 occurrences143–137 Mya — about 10 occurrences137–132 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences126–120 Mya — about 13 occurrences120–114 Mya — about 2 occurrences114–109 Mya — about 4 occurrences109–103 Mya — about 2 occurrences103–97 Mya — about 11 occurrences97–91 Mya — about 13 occurrences91–86 Mya — about 2 occurrences86–80 Mya — about 52 occurrences80–74 Mya — about 42 occurrences74–69 Mya — about 46 occurrences69–63 Mya — about 23 occurrences63–57 Mya — about 5 occurrences34–29 Mya — about 4 occurrences29–23 Mya — about 3 occurrences23–17 Mya — about 7 occurrences17–11 Mya — about 17 occurrences11–5.7 Mya — about 10 occurrences5.7–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences165.3 Mya3.55 Mya172 Mya0 Mya

288 occurrences of Albanerpetontidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

288 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

68 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 — 50.76°N, 111.53°WMilk River — 49.10°N, 111.80°WAguja — 29.32°N, 103.52°WAguja — 29.10°N, 103.17°WAguja — 29.30°N, 103.57°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 45.66°N, 105.08°WHell Creek — 47.27°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 46.03°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 45.05°N, 101.97°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.50°WDinosaur Park — 50.76°N, 111.52°WDinosaur Park — 50.84°N, 111.30°WDinosaur Park — 49.10°N, 110.94°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WCedar Mountain — 38.94°N, 111.08°WCedar Mountain — 38.66°N, 111.24°WCedar Mountain — 38.98°N, 111.04°WCedar Mountain — 38.64°N, 111.37°WDensuș-Ciula — 45.60°N, 22.85°EDensuș-Ciula — 45.63°N, 22.90°Efacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°EStraight Cliffs — 37.80°N, 111.50°WStraight Cliffs — 37.64°N, 112.06°WStraight Cliffs — 37.62°N, 112.16°WStraight Cliffs — 37.60°N, 111.95°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WKaiparowits — 37.80°N, 111.50°WKaiparowits — 37.40°N, 111.20°WIron Springs — 37.57°N, 113.43°WIron Springs — 37.90°N, 112.74°WIron Springs — 37.80°N, 112.82°WIron Springs — 37.37°N, 113.35°WPui Beds — 45.49°N, 23.09°ELourinhã — 39.22°N, 9.34°WKsar Metlili — 32.70°N, 3.22°WWahweap — 37.60°N, 111.35°WWahweap — 37.59°N, 112.90°WWahweap — 37.63°N, 112.12°WPaskapoo — 51.10°N, 114.50°WPaskapoo — 52.40°N, 113.80°WPaskapoo — 51.00°N, 114.10°WPaskapoo — 52.35°N, 113.77°WPaskapoo — 51.18°N, 114.43°WForest Marble — 51.87°N, 1.27°WForest Marble — 50.71°N, 2.78°WForest Marble — 50.68°N, 2.66°WForest Marble — 51.73°N, 1.98°WKhodzhakul — 42.37°N, 60.03°EKhodzhakul — 40.10°N, 65.80°ECloverly — 45.10°N, 106.90°WCloverly — 44.65°N, 107.88°WCloverly — 44.51°N, 107.90°WCloverly — 44.50°N, 107.82°WNaturita — 37.80°N, 111.50°WNaturita — 37.65°N, 112.97°WAntlers — 34.15°N, 95.82°WAntlers — 33.50°N, 97.58°WAntlers — 33.28°N, 97.62°WLa Huérguina — 40.12°N, 1.97°WLa Huérguina — 40.22°N, 1.98°WLa Huérguina — 40.06°N, 1.88°WWessex — 50.64°N, 1.41°WWessex — 50.66°N, 1.13°W

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The named rock units Albanerpetontidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 44 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 43 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Albanerpetontidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Albanerpetontidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

2,514 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 237 sites for Albanerpetontidae, 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

87 references

Each of the 288 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. 75 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 Albanerpetontidae

Credit
Hemiauchenia
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
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
Albanerpetontidae indet. · UP:Villeveyrac:UP.VIL.2006.07

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 itLissamphibia through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fox and Naylor 1982