Koolasuchus cleelandi

Koolasuchus is an extinct genus of brachyopoid temnospondyl in the family Chigutisauridae. Fossils have been found in the Wonthaggi Formation in Victoria, Australia and date back to 125–120 million years ago during the Barremian and Aptian stages of the Early Cretaceous, making Koolasuchus the youngest known temnospondyl. It is known from several fragments of the skull and other bones such as vertebrae, ribs, and pectoral elements. The type species Koolasuchus cleelandi was named in 1997. K. cleelandi was adopted as the fossil emblem for the state of Victoria, Australia on 13 January 2022.

Koolasuchus cleelandi

Stephen F. Poropat, Phil R. Bell, Lachlan J. Hart, Steven W. Salisbury, & Benjamin P. Kear · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
KoolasuchusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 6.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 119.57 Mya to 113.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 121.4 Mya to 110.1 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 6 of 6 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous121–121 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences121–121 Mya — about 1 occurrence121–120 Mya — about 1 occurrence120–120 Mya — about 1 occurrence120–119 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences113–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119.57 Mya113.2 Mya121.9 Mya109.6 Mya

6 occurrences of Koolasuchus cleelandi on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

6 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

1 formation

"Wonthaggi" — 38.54°S, 145.40°E

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

Koolasuchus cleelandi and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Koolasuchus cleelandi and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

13 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Koolasuchus cleelandi, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

2 references

Each of the 6 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 Koolasuchus cleelandi

Credit
Stephen F. Poropat, Phil R. Bell, Lachlan J. Hart, Steven W. Salisbury, & Benjamin P. Kear
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Koolasuchus cleelandi 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 itKoolasuchus through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Warren et al. 1997