Neptunidraco

Neptunidraco is an extinct genus of metriorhynchid thalattosuchian that lived during the middle Jurassic period in what is now northeastern Italy. It is currently the oldest known metriorhynchid, an extinct group of fully marine reptiles related to modern crocodylians.

Neptunidraco

Uncredited · 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
GeosaurinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Environment
marinePBDB, for Thalattosuchia

Time the record covers

At most 28 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 170.9 Mya and 143.1 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Middle Jurassic — about 2 of 3 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 1 of 3 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 3 occurrences171–170 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences170–170 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences170–169 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences169–168 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences168–167 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences167–166 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences166–165 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences165–164 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences164–163 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences163–162 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences162–161 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences161–160 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences160–159 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences159–158 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences158–157 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences157–156 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences156–155 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences144–144 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences171.5 Mya142.5 Mya

3 occurrences of Neptunidraco on record, most of them in the Middle 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

3 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

1 formation

Rosso Ammonitico Veronese — 45.52°N, 10.83°ERosso Ammonitico Veronese — 45.84°N, 11.43°ERosso Ammonitico Veronese — 45.88°N, 11.61°E

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

Neptunidraco and its relatives

Middle Jurassic

Where Neptunidraco and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

5 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Neptunidraco, 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 3 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 doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Neptunidraco

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Neptunidraco 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 itGeosaurinae through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cau and Fanti 2011