Dyrosauridae
Searched as Dyrosauridae indet.. The Paleobiology Database treats Dyrosauridae as the accepted name.
Dyrosauridae is a family of extinct neosuchian crocodyliforms that lived from the Campanian to the Eocene. Dyrosaurid fossils are globally distributed, having been found in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America. Over a dozen species are currently known, varying greatly in overall size and cranial shape, though typically with an elongate gharial-like snout. A majority were aquatic, some terrestrial and others fully marine with species inhabiting both freshwater and marine environments. Ocean-dwelling dyrosaurids were among the few marine reptiles to survive the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

Stéphane Jouve, Mohamed Iarochčne, Baâdi Bouya, and Mbarek Amaghzaz · 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
- DyrosauroideaPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Pseudosuchia
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia
Time the record covers
At least 31 million years on record.
The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 41.03 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 37.71 Mya.
39 occurrences of Dyrosauridae on record, most of them in the Paleocene. 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
39 occurrences- Late Cretaceous32%
- Paleocene65%
- Eocene3%
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
16 formations
- Umm Himar Formation11
- Wadi Milk Formation2
- Santa Lucía Formation2
- Lakhra Formation1
- Dange Formation1
- Ménaka Formation1
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Dyrosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Dyrosauridae and its relatives
PaleoceneWhere Dyrosauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.
Found in the same rock
558 taxa- Aetomylaeus dixoni9 sites
- Pycnodus7 sites
- Pycnodontidae6 sites
- Rhabdognathus6 sites
- Siluriformes6 sites
- Agomphus pectoralis5 sites
- Chelonioidea5 sites
- Congosaurus compressus5 sites
- Elasmosauridae5 sites
- Euclastes wielandi5 sites
- Pelomedusidae5 sites
- Taphrosphys sulcatus5 sites
- Acherontisuchus guajiraensis4 sites
- Amiiformes4 sites
- Anura4 sites
- Bothremydidae4 sites
- Cretalamna appendiculata4 sites
- Dyrosaurus4 sites
- Dyrosaurus phosphaticus4 sites
- Elasmobranchii4 sites
- Enchodus4 sites
- Eotorpedo hilgendorfi4 sites
- Hyposaurinae indet.4 sites
- Hyposaurus4 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 91 sites for Dyrosauridae, 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
21 references- The Umm Himar Formation (Paleocene) of Saudi Arabia and Associated Strata: Stratigraphy, Vertebrate Fauna, and Paleoenvironment10
- New data on the Dyrosauridae (Crocodylomorpha) from the Paleocene of Togo4
- The longirostrine crocodyliforms from Bolivia and their evolution through the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary3
- Marine vertebrate faunas from the Maastrichtian phosphates of Benguérir (Ganntour Basin, Morocco): Biostratigraphy, palaeobiogeography and palaeoecology3
- Taxonomic revision of the Dyrosaurid Assemblage (Crocodyliformes: Mesoeucrocodylia) from the Paleocene of the Iullemmeden Basin, West Africa2
- A new nonmarine vertebrate fauna in the Upper Cretaceous of northern Sudan2
- The youngest known South American dyrosaurid (Late Paleocene of Colombia), and evolution of Dyrosauridae (Crocodyliformes: Tethysuchia)1
- A long-snouted dyrosaurid (Crocodyliformes, Mesoeucrocodylia) from the Campanian Quseir Formation of Egypt1
- A composite section of fossiliferous Late Cretaceous–Early Paleogene localities in Senegal and preliminary description of a new Late Maastrichtian vertebrate fossil assemblage1
- A dyrosaurid from the Paleocene of Senegal1
- A late Paleocene probable metatherian (?deltatheroidan) survivor of the Cretaceous mass extinction1
- A New Small Short-Snouted Dyrosaurid (Crocodylomorpha, Mesoeucrocodylia) from the Paleocene of Northeastern Colombia1
Each of the 39 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. 9 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 Dyrosauridae
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Stéphane Jouve, Mohamed Iarochčne, Baâdi Bouya, and Mbarek Amaghzaz
- Licence
- CC BY 2.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Credit
- EDDyLab @ULiege
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
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 itDyrosauroidea through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Stefano 1903)