Chasmatosuchus

Chasmatosuchus was an archosauriform reptile from the early Triassic period of European Russia. One of the earliest described archosauriforms, it was over 2 m long and is thought to have behaved like a modern crocodile. Its mouth had two distinct features: the top of its jaw hooked downwards to aid in holding prey, and the upper palate was lined with a row of teeth—a primitive feature lost in later archosaurs.

Chasmatosuchus

Dmitry Bogdanov · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
ArchosauriformesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At least 2.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 250.8 Mya to 248.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 251.902 Mya to 247 Mya.

Permian — about 0 of 27 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 27 of 27 occurrencesEarly TriassicMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 27 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences252–251 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences251–251 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences251–251 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences251–251 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences251–251 Mya — about 1 occurrence251–250 Mya — about 1 occurrence250–250 Mya — about 1 occurrence250–250 Mya — about 1 occurrence250–250 Mya — about 1 occurrence250–250 Mya — about 1 occurrence250–249 Mya — about 1 occurrence249–249 Mya — about 1 occurrence249–249 Mya — about 1 occurrence249–249 Mya — about 1 occurrence249–249 Mya — about 1 occurrence249–248 Mya — about 1 occurrence248–248 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences248–248 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences248–248 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences248–248 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences248–247 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences250.8 Mya248.6 Mya252.4 Mya246.5 Mya

27 occurrences of Chasmatosuchus on record, most of them in the Early Triassic. 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

27 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

10 formations

Staritskaya — 52.80°N, 51.77°EStaritskaya — 52.21°N, 53.08°EStaritskaya — 52.30°N, 53.08°EStaritskaya — 52.37°N, 52.69°EStaritskaya — 52.54°N, 52.36°EStaritskaya — 52.83°N, 52.35°EStaritskaya — 52.81°N, 51.73°EStaritskaya — 52.50°N, 51.07°EKzylsaiskaya — 52.35°N, 52.66°EKzylsaiskaya — 51.89°N, 53.64°EKzylsaiskaya — 52.22°N, 53.33°EKzylsaiskaya — 52.50°N, 51.93°EKzylsaiskaya — 52.62°N, 52.01°EPetropavlovka — 51.75°N, 55.08°EPetropavlovka — 51.45°N, 55.20°ESludka — 60.42°N, 48.58°EKopanaskya — 51.34°N, 55.72°EYarenskian — 62.06°N, 49.56°EKamennyi Yar — 52.81°N, 51.70°EMechet' — 52.80°N, 51.78°EKopanskaya — 52.37°N, 52.69°EGostevskaya — 52.42°N, 51.17°E

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The named rock units Chasmatosuchus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Chasmatosuchus and its relatives

Early Triassic

Where Chasmatosuchus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Triassic.

Found in the same rock

29 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 26 sites for Chasmatosuchus, 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

7 references

Each of the 27 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 Chasmatosuchus

Credit
Dmitry Bogdanov
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Chasmatosuchus 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 itArchosauriformes through timeFormations of the Early TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Huene 1940