Massopoda
Sauropodomorpha is an extinct clade of saurischian dinosaurs that includes the long-necked, herbivorous sauropods and their ancestral relatives. Early, more basal sauropodomorphs were bipedal, and the earliest show evidence of omnivorous or carnivorous diets. Over time, sauropodomorph evolution resulted in a shift to herbivorous diets, larger body sizes, and quadrupedal locomotion. The sauropods themselves generally grew to very large sizes, had long necks and tails, and became the largest animals to ever walk the Earth. The sauropods were the dominant terrestrial herbivores throughout much of the Mesozoic Era, from their origins in the Late Triassic until their decline and extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.
AbstractionBlue · 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
- SauropodomorphaPBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida
Time the record covers
At least 155 million years on record.
The record covers at least 227.3 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 237 Mya to 66 Mya.
3,769 occurrences of Massopoda on record, most of them in the Late 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
3,769 occurrences- Late Triassicunder 1%
- Early Jurassic6%
- Middle Jurassic6%
- Late Jurassic28%
- Early Cretaceous23%
- Late Cretaceous36%
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
567 formations
- Morrison Formation509
- Tendaguru Formation133
- Lameta Formation96
- Vitakri Formation · Fort Munro Group84
- Allen Formation · Malargüe Group81
- Elliot Formation · Stormberg Group73
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The named rock units Massopoda has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 543 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 354 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Massopoda and its relatives
Late CretaceousWhere Massopoda and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.
Found in the same rock
965 taxa- Sauropoda67 sites
- Theropoda48 sites
- Testudines21 sites
- Rebbachisaurinae20 sites
- Crocodylia17 sites
- Ornithopoda16 sites
- Titanosauridae15 sites
- Dinosauria14 sites
- Allosaurus13 sites
- Camarasaurus13 sites
- Dromaeosauridae13 sites
- Lepidotes13 sites
- Plantae13 sites
- Titanosauria13 sites
- Actinopterygii12 sites
- Stegosaurus12 sites
- Allosaurus fragilis11 sites
- Anura11 sites
- Diplodocus11 sites
- Lacertilia11 sites
- Massospondylus10 sites
- Phuwiangosaurus sirindhornae10 sites
- Coelurosauria9 sites
- Osteichthyes9 sites
The Paleobiology Database records at least 1,614 sites for Massopoda, and this reads 240 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
1,671 references- Paleoecological analysis of the vertebrate fauna of the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic), Rocky Mountain region, U.S.A.63
- Fossils from the Elliot and Clarens Formations (Karoo Sequence) of the northeastern Cape, Orange Free State and Lesotho, and a suggested biozonation based on tetrapods52
- Taxonomy of Late Jurassic diplodocid sauropods from Tendaguru (Tanzania)45
- Biostratigraphy of dinosaurs in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of the Western Interior, U.S.A.44
- Die Gliedmaszen und Gliedmaszengürtel der Sauropoden der Tendaguru-Schichten [The limbs and limb girdles of the sauropods of the Tendaguru Beds]32
- Les Dinosauriens du "Continental intercalaire" du Saharal central [The dinosaurs of the "Continental Intercalaire" of the central Sahara]32
- New Balochisaurus (Balochisauridae, Titanosauria, Sauropoda) and Vitakridrinda (Theropoda) remains From Pakistan28
- Distribution and paleobiological significance of dinosaur tracks from the Jindong Formation (Albian) in Kosong County, Korea27
- Review of French dinosaur eggshells: morphology, structure, mineral, and organic composition26
- Upper Jurassic sauropod record in the Lusitanian Basin (Portugal): geographical and lithostratigraphical distribution24
- Upper Cretaceous dinosaur nesting sites of Rio Negro (Salitral Ojo de Agua and Salinas de Trapalco-Salitral de Santa Rosa), northern Patagonia, Argentina21
- Revision of South American titanosaurid dinosaurs: palaeobiological, palaeobiogeographical and phylogenetic aspects21
Each of the 3,769 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. 1,659 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 Massopoda
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- AbstractionBlue
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Massopoda 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 itSauropodomorpha through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Yates 2007