Gavialoidea

Gavialoidea is one of three superfamilies of crocodilians, the other two being Alligatoroidea and Crocodyloidea. Although many extinct species are known, only the gharial Gavialis gangeticus and the false gharial Tomistoma schlegelii are alive today, with Hanyusuchus having become extinct in the last few centuries.

Gavialoidea

Matěj Baťha · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
CrocodyliaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 165 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 386 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 386 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 2 of 386 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 57 of 386 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 25 of 386 occurrencesEocene — about 34 of 386 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 21 of 386 occurrencesMiocene — about 189 of 386 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 25 of 386 occurrencesPleistocene — about 27 of 386 occurrences172–166 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences166–160 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences149–143 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences143–137 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences137–132 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences132–126 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences126–120 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences120–114 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences114–109 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences109–103 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences103–97 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences97–92 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences92–86 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences86–80 Mya — about 4 occurrences80–74 Mya — about 5 occurrences74–69 Mya — about 28 occurrences69–63 Mya — about 25 occurrences63–57 Mya — about 13 occurrences57–51 Mya — about 13 occurrences51–46 Mya — about 7 occurrences46–40 Mya — about 6 occurrences40–34 Mya — about 13 occurrences34–29 Mya — about 7 occurrences29–23 Mya — about 15 occurrences23–17 Mya — about 34 occurrences17–11 Mya — about 69 occurrences11–5.7 Mya — about 82 occurrences5.7–0 Mya — about 62 occurrences165.3 Mya11.7 ka172 Mya0 Mya

386 occurrences of Gavialoidea 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

386 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

126 formations

Pebas — 3.99°S, 73.17°WPebas — 4.01°S, 73.37°WPebas — 4.30°S, 73.46°WPebas — 7.36°S, 74.96°WPebas — 4.01°S, 73.03°WPebas — 3.74°S, 73.25°WUrumaco — 11.38°N, 69.93°WUrumaco — 11.22°N, 70.24°WUrumaco — 11.25°N, 70.27°WHell Creek — 45.98°N, 103.75°WHell Creek — 46.38°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.00°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WPisco — 15.58°S, 74.72°WPisco — 15.50°S, 74.80°WPisco — 15.55°S, 74.80°WPisco — 15.67°S, 74.54°WPisco — 14.52°S, 75.71°WPisco — 14.45°S, 75.75°WPisco — 15.49°S, 74.73°WPisco — 14.38°S, 75.90°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WHornerstown — 40.12°N, 74.55°WHornerstown — 40.15°N, 74.72°WHornerstown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.16°WHornerstown — 40.30°N, 74.10°WCalvert — 38.54°N, 76.73°WCalvert — 37.93°N, 77.51°WCalvert — 38.53°N, 76.52°WCalvert — 38.17°N, 76.87°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WSolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WSolimoes — 8.18°S, 70.48°WSolimoes — 10.94°S, 69.34°WVincentown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WVincentown — 39.26°N, 74.60°WVincentown — 39.93°N, 74.75°WVincentown — 39.88°N, 75.09°WVincentown — 39.86°N, 74.82°WCastillo — 10.37°N, 70.05°WCastillo — 10.57°N, 69.70°WAquia — 38.70°N, 76.99°WAquia — 38.40°N, 77.30°WAquia — 38.46°N, 77.27°WAquia — 38.50°N, 77.59°WPinjor — 30.77°N, 76.86°EPinjor — 30.33°N, 77.11°EPinjor — 28.82°N, 79.09°EChandler Bridge — 33.03°N, 80.27°WChandler Bridge — 32.87°N, 80.03°WChandler Bridge — 33.01°N, 80.06°WChandler Bridge — 32.97°N, 80.15°WSolimões — 10.13°S, 67.81°WSolimões — 9.08°S, 68.67°WSolimões — 7.84°S, 69.15°WSolimões — 8.79°S, 67.50°WSolimões — 10.94°S, 69.52°WNkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°ESevern — 38.91°N, 76.85°WSevern — 38.96°N, 76.71°WPeace River — 27.83°N, 81.97°WPeace River — 29.65°N, 82.35°WPeace River — 29.68°N, 82.37°WVillavieja — 3.24°N, 75.18°WVillavieja — 3.32°N, 75.13°WVillavieja — 3.30°N, 75.17°WPinjor — 30.73°N, 76.78°EIrrawaddy — 21.28°N, 95.51°EIrrawaddy — 20.13°N, 94.89°EIrrawaddy — 20.17°N, 94.92°ENanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WNanjemoy — 38.82°N, 76.75°WDhok Pathan — 33.03°N, 72.47°EDhok Pathan — 32.83°N, 73.30°EDhok Pathan — 32.33°N, 73.88°ESocorro — 11.99°N, 70.11°WSocorro — 11.19°N, 70.15°WMoghara — 30.38°N, 28.82°EMoghara — 30.30°N, 30.00°ERipley — 33.43°N, 88.88°WRipley — 35.62°N, 88.12°WRipley — 35.38°N, 88.40°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Gavialoidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 102 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 85 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Gavialoidea and its relatives

Miocene

Where Gavialoidea and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

2,715 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 330 sites for Gavialoidea, and this reads 240 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

191 references

Each of the 386 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. 179 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 Gavialoidea

Credit
Matěj Baťha
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itCrocodylia through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Brochu 1997)