Megalancosaurus

Megalancosaurus is a genus of extinct sauropsid from the Late Triassic Dolomia di Forni Formation and Zorzino Limestone of northern Italy, and one of the best known drepanosaurids. The type species is M. preonensis; a translation of the animal's scientific name would be "long armed reptile from the Preone Valley."

Megalancosaurus

Renesto, S. e Dalla Vecchia, F. M. · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
MegalancosaurinaePBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB
Life habit
arborealPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At most 9.7 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 215.38 Mya and 205.7 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Triassic — about 5 of 5 occurrencesLate Triassic216–215 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences215–215 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences215–214 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences214–214 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences214–214 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences214–213 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences213–213 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences213–213 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences213–212 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences212–212 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences212–212 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences212–211 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences211–211 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences211–211 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences211–210 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences210–210 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences210–209 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences209–209 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences209–209 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences209–208 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences208–208 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences208–208 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences208–207 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences207–207 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences207–207 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences207–206 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences206–206 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences206–206 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences215.9 Mya205.2 Mya

5 occurrences of Megalancosaurus on record, most of them in the Late Triassic. 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

5 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

2 formations

Dolomia di Forni — 46.38°N, 12.86°EZorzino Limestone — 45.68°N, 9.72°E

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

Megalancosaurus and its relatives

Late Triassic

Where Megalancosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.

Found in the same rock

7 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Megalancosaurus, 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

3 references

Each of the 5 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Megalancosaurus

Credit
Renesto, S. e Dalla Vecchia, F. M.
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Megalancosaurus was found in Sketchfab.

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 itMegalancosaurinae through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Calzavara et al. 1981