Ichthyosaurus communis
Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikidata/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
- IchthyosaurusPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Ichthyopterygia
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Time the record covers
At least 6.6 million years on record.
The record covers at least 199.5 Mya to 192.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 205.7 Mya to 174.7 Mya.
25 occurrences of Ichthyosaurus communis 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
25 occurrencesThese 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
- Blue Lias Formation · Lias Group7
- White Lias Formation · Penarth Group4
- Luxembourg Formation2
- Lias Formation · Lower Lias Group2
- Charmouth Mudstone Formation · Lias Group1
- Ardnish Formation1
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The named rock units Ichthyosaurus communis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Ichthyosaurus communis and its relatives
Early JurassicWhere Ichthyosaurus communis and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.
Found in the same rock
62 taxa- Ichthyosaurus tenuirostris5 sites
- Proteosaurus platyodon4 sites
- Thalassiodracon hawkinsii4 sites
- Cirpa variabilis3 sites
- Pentacrinites3 sites
- Ammonitida2 sites
- Cenoceras striatum2 sites
- Coroniceras (Arietites) bucklandi2 sites
- Crassadoma gigantea2 sites
- Gryphaea2 sites
- Ichthyosaurus larkini2 sites
- Leptonectes tenuirostris2 sites
- Metophioceras conybeari2 sites
- Pentacrinus tuberculatus2 sites
- Androgynoceras (Oistoceras) angulatum1 site
- Antiquilima antiquata1 site
- Araucarites1 site
- Arietites semicostatus1 site
- Asteroceras obtusum1 site
- Asteroceras stellare1 site
- Avalonnectes arturi1 site
- Avicula1 site
- Caenisites turneri1 site
- Cardinia1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Ichthyosaurus communis, 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
12 references- On the Zone of Avicula contorta, and the Lower Lias of the South of England11
- Hawkins, 18343
- A revision of the latipinnate ichthyosaurs of the Lower Jurassic of England (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria)2
- Ichthyosaurs from the Jurassic of Skye, Scotland1
- A new specimen of Ichthyosaurus communis from Dorset, UK, and its bearing on the stratigraphical range of the species1
- A large skull of Ichthyosaurus (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) from the Lower Sinemurian (Lower Jurassic) of Frick (NW Switzerland)1
- A marine reptile fauna from the Early Jurassic Saltford Shale (Blue Lias Formation) of Central England1
- Un crâne d'Ichthyosaurus communis (Reptilia, Ichthyosauria) du Sinémurien supérieur de Lorraine belge1
- The fossil vertebrates of Belgium1
- Lydekker, 18881
- A History of British Fossil Reptiles, Part III1
- Descriptive catalogue of the Fossil organic remains of Reptilia and Pisces contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England1
Each of the 25 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. 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 Ichthyosaurus communis
- Source
- Wikidata/Commons
- Credit
- Ghedoghedo
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Ichthyosaurus communis was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.
MorphoSource was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itIchthyosaurus through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Conybeare 1821)