Cryptobranchidae

The Cryptobranchidae are a family of large salamanders that are fully aquatic. The family includes some of the largest living amphibians. They are native to China, Japan, and the eastern United States. Giant salamanders constitute one of two living families—the other being the Asiatic salamanders belonging to the family Hynobiidae—within the Cryptobranchoidea, one of two main divisions of living salamanders.

Cryptobranchidae

V31S70 · 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
Also called
hellbenderPBDB
Sits inside
CryptobranchoideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 93 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 42 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 9 of 42 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 4 of 42 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 42 occurrencesOligocene — about 3 of 42 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 18 of 42 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 42 occurrencesPleistocene — about 7 of 42 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 1 occurrence96–92 Mya — about 2 occurrences92–89 Mya — about 2 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 2 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences79–75 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences62–58 Mya — about 2 occurrences58–55 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 6 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 5 occurrences14–10 Mya — about 3 occurrences10–6.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.8–3.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.4–0 Mya — about 8 occurrences93.9 Mya129 ka103 Mya0 Mya

42 occurrences of Cryptobranchidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

42 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

19 formations

Bissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°EBissekty — 40.70°N, 72.60°ERunningwater — 42.80°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.07°N, 103.08°WBrackwater Molasse — 48.35°N, 9.86°EBrackwater Molasse — 48.48°N, 10.10°EYalovach — 40.49°N, 69.70°ENaran Bulak — 43.47°N, 100.45°EValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WPawnee Creek — 40.90°N, 103.28°WSnake Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WVille — 50.90°N, 6.45°ERavenscrag — 49.06°N, 102.75°WWood Mountain — 49.18°N, 105.95°WAral — 50.30°N, 57.18°EFort Union — 44.91°N, 109.02°WMost — 50.57°N, 13.75°EKhodzhakul — 40.10°N, 65.80°EBostobe — 46.57°N, 63.87°EReuver clay — 50.90°N, 6.45°ELefkon — 41.17°N, 23.50°ELewisville — 32.81°N, 97.08°W

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The named rock units Cryptobranchidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cryptobranchidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Cryptobranchidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,190 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 38 sites for Cryptobranchidae, 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

28 references

Each of the 42 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. 16 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 content1

Picture of Cryptobranchidae

Credit
V31S70
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cryptobranchidae 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 itCryptobranchoidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1889