Herrerasauridae

Herrerasauria is an extinct clade of carnivorous dinosaurs, possibly basal to either theropods or all saurischians, or even their own branching from Dracohors, separate from Dinosauria altogether. They are among the oldest known dinosaurs, first appearing in the fossil record around 233.23 million years ago, before becoming extinct by the end of the Carnian stage. Herrerasaurids were relatively small-sized dinosaurs, normally no more than 4 metres (13 ft) long, although the holotype specimen of "Frenguellisaurus ischigualastensis" is thought to have reached around 6 meters long. The best known representatives of this group are from South America, where they were first discovered in the 1930s in relation to Staurikosaurus and 1960s in relation to Herrerasaurus. A nearly complete skeleton of Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis was discovered in the Ischigualasto Formation in San Juan, Argentina, in 1988. Less complete possible herrerasaurids have been found in North America and Africa, and they may have inhabited other continents as well.

Herrerasauridae

Eva K. · GFDL 1.2 · 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
herrerasauridPBDB
Sits inside
SaurischiaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At most 36 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 237 Mya and 201.4 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Middle Triassic — about 0 of 21 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 21 of 21 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 21 occurrences238–236 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences236–235 Mya — about 2 occurrences235–234 Mya — about 2 occurrences234–233 Mya — about 2 occurrences233–232 Mya — about 2 occurrences232–230 Mya — about 2 occurrences230–229 Mya — about 2 occurrences229–228 Mya — about 2 occurrences228–227 Mya — about 1 occurrence227–225 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences225–224 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences224–223 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences223–222 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences222–220 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences220–219 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences219–218 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences218–217 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences217–215 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences215–214 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences214–213 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences213–212 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences212–211 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences211–209 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences209–208 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences208–207 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences207–206 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences206–204 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences204–203 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences203–202 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences202–201 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences237.7 Mya200.7 Mya

21 occurrences of Herrerasauridae on record, most of them in the Late 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

21 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

6 formations

Ischigualasto — 31.10°S, 68.90°WIschigualasto — 30.13°S, 68.28°WIschigualasto — 30.14°S, 67.88°WIschigualasto — 29.22°S, 68.70°WSanta Maria — 29.68°S, 53.80°WSanta Maria — 29.63°S, 53.45°WCooper Canyon — 33.52°N, 101.32°WCooper Canyon — 33.45°N, 101.44°WChinle — 34.44°N, 109.46°WWozniki Limestone — 50.48°N, 19.34°EPebbly Arkose — 16.10°S, 30.47°E

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

Herrerasauridae and its relatives

Late Triassic

Where Herrerasauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.

Found in the same rock

123 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Herrerasauridae, 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

16 references

Each of the 21 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. 4 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 Herrerasauridae

Credit
Eva K.
Licence
GFDL 1.2
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Herrerasauridae 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 itSaurischia through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Benedetto 1973