Contectopalatus

Phalarodon is an extinct genus of mixosaurid ichthyosaur known from the Middle Triassic. Its name is derived from the Greek φάλαρα (phálara) and odon ("tooth"). The genus has had a tumultuous history since its classification in 1910, with different workers describing species under different genera or declaring the genus to be a nomen dubium. Currently three species are recognized, but more have been identified in the past.

Contectopalatus

Aubrey Jane Roberts, Victoria Sjøholt Engelschiøn, and Jørn Harald Hurum · CC BY 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
PhalarodontinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Ichthyopterygia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Environment
marinePBDB, for Ichthyosauria

Time the record covers

At most 10 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 247 Mya and 237 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Early Triassic — about 0 of 1 occurrenceMiddle Triassic — about 1 of 1 occurrenceMiddle TriassicLate Triassic — about 0 of 1 occurrence247–247 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences247–246 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences246–246 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences246–246 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences246–245 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences245–245 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences245–245 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences245–244 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences244–244 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences244–243 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences243–243 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences243–243 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences243–242 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences242–242 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences242–242 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences242–241 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences241–241 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences241–241 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences241–240 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences240–240 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences240–239 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences239–239 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences239–239 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences239–238 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences238–238 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences238–238 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences238–237 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences237–237 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences247.5 Mya236.5 Mya

1 occurrence of Contectopalatus on record, most of them in the Middle 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

1 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

1 formation

Monte San Giorgio bituminous shales — 45.15°N, 9.23°E

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

Contectopalatus and its relatives

Middle Triassic

Where Contectopalatus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Triassic.

Found in the same rock

5 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Contectopalatus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Contectopalatus

Credit
Aubrey Jane Roberts, Victoria Sjøholt Engelschiøn, and Jørn Harald Hurum
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Contectopalatus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itPhalarodontinae through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Maisch and Matzke 1998