Metoposaurus

Metoposaurus meaning "front lizard" is an extinct genus of stereospondyl temnospondyls, known from the Late Triassic of Germany, Italy, Poland, and Portugal. This animal was mostly aquatic, possessing small, weak limbs, sharp teeth, and a large, flat head. This highly flattened creature mainly fed on fish, which it captured with its wide jaws lined with needle-like teeth. Many Metoposaurus mass graves have been found, probably from creatures that grouped together in drying pools during drought.

Metoposaurus

Shalom · CC BY 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
MetoposauridaePBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda
Length
3 mWikidata
Mass
450 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 27 million years on record.

The record covers at least 233.6 Mya to 205.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 237 Mya to 201.4 Mya.

Middle Triassic — about 0 of 30 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 30 of 30 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 30 occurrences238–236 Mya — about 1 occurrence236–235 Mya — about 3 occurrences235–234 Mya — about 3 occurrences234–233 Mya — about 3 occurrences233–232 Mya — about 3 occurrences232–230 Mya — about 3 occurrences230–229 Mya — about 3 occurrences229–228 Mya — about 3 occurrences228–227 Mya — about 1 occurrence227–225 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences225–224 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences224–223 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences223–222 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences222–220 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences220–219 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences219–218 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences218–217 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences217–215 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences215–214 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences214–213 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences213–212 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences212–211 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences211–209 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences209–208 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences208–207 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences207–206 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences206–204 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences204–203 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences203–202 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences202–201 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences233.6 Mya205.7 Mya237.7 Mya200.7 Mya

30 occurrences of Metoposaurus 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

30 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

17 formations

Hassberge — 49.84°N, 10.48°EStuttgart — 48.80°N, 9.17°EStuttgart — 48.86°N, 9.39°EStuttgart — 49.13°N, 9.26°EStuttgart — 49.42°N, 10.48°EWeser — 48.98°N, 9.70°EWeser — 48.77°N, 9.20°EWeser — 49.03°N, 9.30°EWeser — 48.88°N, 9.57°ETiki — 23.92°N, 81.37°ETiki — 23.98°N, 81.40°EDockum — 33.50°N, 101.13°WTimezgadiouine — 31.03°N, 9.01°WSanta Rosa Sandstone — 32.95°N, 100.88°WGrès à Avicula contorta — 48.62°N, 6.33°EGrabowa — 50.67°N, 18.28°EGrès de Silves — 37.25°N, 8.11°WDrawno Beds — 50.67°N, 18.25°ELöwenstein — 48.75°N, 9.17°ERaibl — 46.57°N, 11.67°EWolfville — 45.22°N, 64.00°WTrossingen — 51.90°N, 11.07°ERaibl — 48.06°N, 16.12°ECooper Canyon — 33.00°N, 101.15°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Metoposaurus and its relatives

Late Triassic

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

Found in the same rock

154 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Metoposaurus, 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

20 references

Each of the 30 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. 8 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 Metoposaurus

Credit
Shalom
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itMetoposauridae through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lydekker 1890