Colymbosaurus trochanterius

Colymbosaurus is a genus of cryptoclidid plesiosaur from the Middle-Late Jurassic (Callovian-Tithonian) of the UK and Svalbard, Norway. There are two currently recognized species, C. megadeirus and C. svalbardensis.

Colymbosaurus trochanterius

the paleobear from Lontananza, Loreto, Peru · CC BY 2.0 · 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
ColymbosaurusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Environment
marinePBDB, for Plesiosauria

Time the record covers

At least 20 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 145.06 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 143.1 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 2 of 12 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 10 of 12 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 12 occurrences169–168 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences168–167 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences167–166 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences166–165 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences165–164 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences164–163 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences163–163 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences163–162 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences162–161 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences156–155 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences150–150 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 1 occurrence144–143 Mya — about 1 occurrence143–143 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences165.3 Mya145.06 Mya168.7 Mya142.6 Mya

12 occurrences of Colymbosaurus trochanterius on record, most of them in the Late 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

12 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

5 formations

Kimmeridge Clay — 51.75°N, 1.18°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.13°WKimmeridge Clay — 52.60°N, 0.38°EKimmeridge Clay — 51.75°N, 1.20°WKimmeridge Clay — 52.40°N, 0.28°EKimmeridge Clay — 52.36°N, 0.15°EKimmeridge Clay — 50.54°N, 2.42°WPortland Stone — 50.57°N, 2.45°WMont-Lambert — 50.77°N, 1.63°EOxford Clay — 51.50°N, 2.06°WLealt Shale — 56.91°N, 6.11°W

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The named rock units Colymbosaurus trochanterius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Colymbosaurus trochanterius and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Colymbosaurus trochanterius and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

49 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Colymbosaurus trochanterius, 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

10 references

Each of the 12 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 Colymbosaurus trochanterius

Credit
the paleobear from Lontananza, Loreto, Peru
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Colymbosaurus trochanterius 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 itColymbosaurus through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Owen 1840)