Coniasaurus

Coniasaurus is an extinct genus of Late Cretaceous marine squamates that range in age from Cenomanian to Santonian. It was first described by Richard Owen in 1850 from lower Cenomanian chalk deposits in South East England (Sussex). Two species have been described from this genus: C. crassidens, known from Cenomanian to Santonian deposits from South East England, Germany and North America, and C. gracilodens from the Cenomanian of southeast England.

Coniasaurus

James Erxleben · 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
Sits inside
DolichosauridaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 8.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 85.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 106.3 Mya to 83.6 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 19 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 19 of 19 occurrencesLate Cretaceous107–106 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences106–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–104 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences104–104 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences104–103 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences103–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–101 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences100–100 Mya — about 2 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 2 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 2 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 2 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 2 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 2 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 2 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 2 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 1 occurrence93–93 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences91–90 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences93.9 Mya85.7 Mya106.8 Mya83.1 Mya

19 occurrences of Coniasaurus 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

19 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

12 formations

Greenhorn Limestone — 37.22°N, 103.60°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.00°N, 98.92°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.69°N, 103.94°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.74°N, 97.65°WCarlile Shale — 38.71°N, 98.91°WCarlile Shale — 42.74°N, 97.03°WCarlile Shale — 38.72°N, 99.32°WBeer Head Limestone — 50.90°N, 0.15°WBeer Head Limestone — 50.90°N, 0.41°WAshville — 53.48°N, 102.24°WBritton — 32.90°N, 97.04°WLake Waco — 31.59°N, 97.21°WNiobrara — 38.85°N, 100.17°WLower Chalk — 51.10°N, 1.26°EHolywell Nodular Chalk — 51.35°N, 0.46°EZig Zag Chalk — 51.33°N, 0.48°ETarrant — 32.61°N, 97.11°WDakota — 40.06°N, 97.34°W

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The named rock units Coniasaurus 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.

Coniasaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

131 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Coniasaurus, 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

15 references

Each of the 19 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. 3 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 Coniasaurus

Credit
James Erxleben
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Coniasaurus sp. · dmnh:1601

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 itDolichosauridae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1850