Ichthyosaurus

Ichthyosaurus is an extinct genus of ichthyosaurs from the Early Jurassic of Europe. Some specimens of the ichthyosaurid Protoichthyosaurus from England and Switzerland have been erroneously referred to this genus in the past. It is among the best known ichthyosaur genera, as it is the type genus of the order Ichthyosauria.

A picture published with the record for Ichthyosaurus.

Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com ) · CC BY 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
IchthyosauridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Ichthyopterygia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Environment
marinePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Length
3 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 109 million years on record.

The record covers at least 215.38 Mya to 106.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 237 Mya to 93.9 Mya.

Middle Triassic — about 0 of 101 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 18 of 101 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 53 of 101 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 8 of 101 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 16 of 101 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 6 of 101 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 101 occurrences240–235 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences235–230 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences230–225 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences225–220 Mya — about 1 occurrence220–215 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences215–210 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences210–205 Mya — about 2 occurrences205–200 Mya — about 26 occurrences200–195 Mya — about 18 occurrences195–190 Mya — about 7 occurrences190–185 Mya — about 3 occurrences185–180 Mya — about 8 occurrences180–175 Mya — about 2 occurrences175–170 Mya — about 2 occurrences170–165 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences165–160 Mya — about 7 occurrences160–156 Mya — about 2 occurrences156–151 Mya — about 4 occurrences151–146 Mya — about 7 occurrences146–141 Mya — about 3 occurrences141–136 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences136–131 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences131–126 Mya — about 2 occurrences126–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121–116 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences116–111 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences111–106 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences106–101 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences101–96 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences96–91 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences215.38 Mya106.3 Mya240 Mya91 Mya

101 occurrences of Ichthyosaurus on record, most of them in the Early Jurassic. 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

101 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

24 formations

Blue Lias — 50.70°N, 2.97°WBlue Lias — 52.36°N, 1.86°WBlue Lias — 52.03°N, 2.15°WBlue Lias — 50.73°N, 2.92°WBlue Lias — 51.13°N, 2.77°WBlue Lias — 51.13°N, 2.73°WWhite Lias — 51.12°N, 2.73°WAlum Shale — 54.55°N, 0.88°WAlum Shale — 54.48°N, 0.60°WAlum Shale — 54.45°N, 0.53°WWestbury — 51.60°N, 2.63°WWestbury — 51.82°N, 2.41°WWestbury — 51.93°N, 2.23°WLuning — 38.43°N, 118.05°WOxford Clay — 51.75°N, 1.24°WOxford Clay — 51.73°N, 1.21°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.74°N, 1.31°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.13°WMont-Lambert — 50.77°N, 1.63°EExter — 48.55°N, 9.07°EExter — 48.56°N, 9.07°ECharmouth Mudstone — 50.71°N, 2.96°WCharmouth Mudstone — 50.73°N, 2.91°WCerritos Bayos — 22.56°S, 69.14°WLuxembourg — 49.72°N, 5.80°ELias — 51.40°N, 2.46°WSandilands — 53.93°N, 133.15°WFaringdon Sand — 51.65°N, 1.58°WWhitby Mudstone — 54.53°N, 0.70°WOtter Point — 42.59°N, 124.40°WSables de Mortinsart — 49.71°N, 5.62°EGrès de Mortinsart — 49.70°N, 5.66°ELa Casita — 26.98°N, 102.08°WArgiles de Montaubert — 50.73°N, 1.84°EArdnish — 57.03°N, 5.54°WMarly Chalk — 52.95°N, 0.50°ELautaro — 28.20°S, 69.94°W

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The named rock units Ichthyosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 41 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ichthyosaurus and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Ichthyosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

422 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 82 sites for Ichthyosaurus, 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

50 references

Each of the 101 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. 38 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 content3

Picture of Ichthyosaurus

Credit
Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com )
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Ichthyosaurus intermedius · oumnh:pal:J.001454

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

This entry was cached before the site began recording what Smithsonian Open Access did, so a search that failed cannot be told from one that found nothing.

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 itIchthyosauridae through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Koenig 1818