Melanosaurus

No picture of Melanosaurus was found. Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. Wikipedia and Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Melanosaurus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
GlyptosaurinaePBDB
Diet
insectivore, carnivorePBDB, for Anguidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Glyptosaurinae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Glyptosaurinae

Time the record covers

At least 4.9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 56 Mya to 51.1 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 57.5 Mya to 45.9 Mya.

Paleocene — about 14 of 42 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 28 of 42 occurrencesEocene58–57 Mya — about 3 occurrences57–57 Mya — about 4 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 4 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 4 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 2 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 2 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 2 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 2 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 2 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 2 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 2 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 2 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 2 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 2 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 1 occurrence51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56 Mya51.1 Mya58 Mya45.4 Mya

42 occurrences of Melanosaurus on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

42 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

5 formations

Willwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 44.58°N, 108.90°WWillwood — 44.44°N, 108.63°WWillwood — 44.49°N, 108.54°WWillwood — 44.59°N, 108.41°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.72°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.90°WWillwood — 44.52°N, 108.65°WWillwood — 44.66°N, 108.79°WWillwood — 44.85°N, 109.17°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 108.20°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 108.07°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 108.00°WFort Union — 44.72°N, 108.62°WFort Union — 44.30°N, 109.00°WSilveirinha — 40.01°N, 8.82°WGreen River — 42.70°N, 110.10°W"Wasatch" — 44.00°N, 106.60°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Melanosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Melanosaurus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Melanosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

300 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 41 sites for Melanosaurus, 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

8 references

Each of the 42 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 content0

No picture of Melanosaurus was found. Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.

Wikipedia and Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Melanosaurus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Melanosaurus 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.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itGlyptosaurinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gilmore 1928