Anchisauridae

Anchisaurus is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur. It lived during the Early Jurassic Period, and its fossils have been found in the red sandstone of the Upper Portland Formation, Northeastern United States, which was deposited from the Hettangian age into the Sinemurian age, between about 200 and 192 million years ago. Until recently it was classed as a member of Prosauropoda. The genus name Anchisaurus comes from the Greek αγχι anchi-; "near, close" + Greek σαυρος ; "lizard". Anchisaurus was coined as a replacement name for "Amphisaurus", which was itself a replacement name for Hitchcock's "Megadactylus", both of which had already been used for other animals.

Anchisauridae

Friedrich von Huene · 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
anchisauridPBDB
Sits inside
ProsauropodaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Prosauropoda
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Prosauropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Prosauropoda

Time the record covers

At least 12 million years on record.

The record covers at least 205.7 Mya to 192.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 237 Mya to 174.7 Mya.

Middle Triassic — about 0 of 17 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 2 of 17 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 15 of 17 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 17 occurrences238–236 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences236–234 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences234–232 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences232–230 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences230–227 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences227–225 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences225–223 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences223–221 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences221–219 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences219–217 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences217–214 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences214–212 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences212–210 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences210–208 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences208–206 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences206–204 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences204–202 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences202–199 Mya — about 5 occurrences199–197 Mya — about 2 occurrences197–195 Mya — about 2 occurrences195–193 Mya — about 2 occurrences193–191 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences191–189 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences189–186 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences186–184 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences184–182 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences182–180 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences180–178 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences178–176 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences176–173 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences205.7 Mya192.9 Mya238 Mya173 Mya

17 occurrences of Anchisauridae on record, most of them in the Early Jurassic. 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

17 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

6 formations

Lufeng — 25.68°N, 104.08°ELufeng — 25.18°N, 102.09°ELufeng — 25.14°N, 101.96°EMcCoy Brook — 45.40°N, 64.22°WClarens — 30.35°S, 27.75°EClarens — 28.88°S, 28.05°EZhenzhuchong — 27.00°N, 107.00°EMolteno — 30.37°S, 27.52°EElliot — 30.50°S, 27.53°E

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The named rock units Anchisauridae 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.

Anchisauridae and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Anchisauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

47 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Anchisauridae, 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

11 references

Each of the 17 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 Anchisauridae

Credit
Friedrich von Huene
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Anchisauridae 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 itProsauropoda through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Marsh 1885)