Mawsonia

Mawsonia is an extinct genus of prehistoric coelacanth fish. It is amongst the largest of all coelacanths, with one quadrate specimen possibly belonging to an individual measuring 5.3 metres in length. It lived in freshwater and brackish environments from the late Jurassic to the mid-Cretaceous of South America, eastern North America, and Africa. Mawsonia was first described by British paleontologist Arthur Smith Woodward in 1907.

Mawsonia

Lionel Cavin, André Piuz, Christophe Ferrante & Guillaume Guinot · CC BY 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
MawsoniidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes

Time the record covers

At least 42 million years on record.

The record covers at least 143.1 Mya to 100.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 174.7 Mya to 93.9 Mya.

Early Jurassic — about 0 of 34 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 34 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 11 of 34 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 12 of 34 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 11 of 34 occurrencesLate Cretaceous176–174 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences174–171 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences171–168 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences168–165 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences165–162 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences162–160 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences160–157 Mya — about 1 occurrence157–154 Mya — about 1 occurrence154–151 Mya — about 2 occurrences151–148 Mya — about 2 occurrences148–146 Mya — about 2 occurrences146–143 Mya — about 2 occurrences143–140 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences140–137 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences137–134 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences134–131 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences131–129 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences129–126 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences126–123 Mya — about 1 occurrence123–120 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences120–117 Mya — about 2 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 2 occurrences115–112 Mya — about 2 occurrences112–109 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences109–106 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences106–103 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences103–101 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences101–98 Mya — about 4 occurrences98–95 Mya — about 5 occurrences95–92 Mya — about 2 occurrences143.1 Mya100.5 Mya176 Mya92 Mya

34 occurrences of Mawsonia 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

34 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

13 formations

Bahariya — 28.40°N, 28.89°EBahariya — 28.43°N, 28.96°EBahariya — 28.45°N, 29.04°EBrejo Santo — 7.25°S, 39.12°WBrejo Santo — 7.50°S, 39.00°WBrejo Santo — 7.17°S, 39.31°WRomualdo — 7.52°S, 39.57°WRomualdo — 7.51°S, 39.55°WRomualdo — 7.47°S, 39.76°WRomualdo — 7.55°S, 40.57°WTacuarembó — 31.88°S, 56.02°WTacuarembó — 31.70°S, 55.96°WTacuarembó — 31.87°S, 55.90°WTacuarembó — 31.80°S, 56.13°WAïn el Guettar — 32.59°N, 10.08°EAïn el Guettar — 32.68°N, 10.17°EAliança — 8.56°S, 37.54°WGara Sbaa — 30.51°N, 4.84°WSalvador — 12.78°S, 38.43°WAlcântara — 2.48°S, 44.46°WMissão Velha — 7.26°S, 39.14°WContinental Intercalaire — 33.19°N, 10.29°EElrhaz — 16.47°N, 9.17°EContinental Intercalaire — 32.72°N, 0.83°E

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The named rock units Mawsonia 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.

Mawsonia and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

167 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 34 sites for Mawsonia, 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

17 references

Each of the 34 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. 5 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 content2

Picture of Mawsonia

Credit
Lionel Cavin, André Piuz, Christophe Ferrante & Guillaume Guinot
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

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 itMawsoniidae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Mawson and Woodward 1907