Megazostrodon

Megazostrodon is an extinct genus of basal mammaliaforms belonging to the order Morganucodonta. It is approximately 200 million years old. Two species are known: M. rudnerae from the Early Jurassic of Lesotho and South Africa, and M. chenali from the Late Triassic of France.

Megazostrodon

Jäger, K.R.K., Gill, P.G., Martin, T., and Corfe, I.J. · 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
MegazostrodontidaePBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Mammaliaformes
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Mammaliaformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 8.5 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 201.4 Mya and 192.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 2 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 2 of 2 occurrencesEarly Jurassic202–201 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–199 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences199–199 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences199–199 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences199–198 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences198–198 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences198–198 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences198–197 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences197–197 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences197–197 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences197–197 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences197–196 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences196–196 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences196–196 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences196–195 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences195–195 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences195–195 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences195–194 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences194–194 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences194–194 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences194–193 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences193–193 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences193–193 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences201.9 Mya192.4 Mya

2 occurrences of Megazostrodon on record, most of them in the Early Jurassic. 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

2 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

Elliot — 28.90°S, 27.57°EElliot — 30.35°S, 27.75°E

Loading coastlines…

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

Megazostrodon and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Megazostrodon and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

3 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Megazostrodon, 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 2 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 Megazostrodon

Credit
Jäger, K.R.K., Gill, P.G., Martin, T., and Corfe, I.J.
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Megazostrodon rudnerae · NHMUK:PAL:PV M 26407

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 itMegazostrodontidae through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Crompton and Jenkins 1968