Leptocleidus

Leptocleidus is an extinct genus of plesiosaur belonging to the family Leptocleididae. It was comparatively small in size, measuring only up to 3 m (9.8 ft) in length.

Leptocleidus

Uncredited · 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
LeptocleididaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Environment
marinePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Length
3 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 137.05 Mya to 121.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 161.5 Mya to 100.5 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 0 of 7 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 7 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 7 of 7 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 7 occurrences163–161 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences161–158 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences158–156 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences156–154 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences154–152 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences152–150 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences150–148 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences148–146 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences146–144 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences144–142 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences142–139 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences137–135 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences135–133 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences133–131 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences131–129 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences129–127 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences125–123 Mya — about 1 occurrence123–120 Mya — about 1 occurrence120–118 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences118–116 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences116–114 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences114–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110–108 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences108–106 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences106–104 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences104–101 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences101–99 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137.05 Mya121.4 Mya163 Mya99 Mya

7 occurrences of Leptocleidus 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

7 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

4 formations

Murderong Shale — 27.59°S, 114.24°EBulldog Shale — 30.45°S, 137.17°EWeald Clay — 50.83°N, 0.15°ESundays River — 33.82°S, 25.55°E

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The named rock units Leptocleidus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Leptocleidus and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Leptocleidus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

9 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Leptocleidus, 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

7 references

Each of the 7 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 content2

Picture of Leptocleidus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itLeptocleididae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Andrews 1922