Omphalosaurus

Omphalosaurus is an extinct genus of marine reptile from the Early Triassic to Middle Triassic, thought to be in the order of Ichthyosauria. Most of what is known about Omphalosaurus is based on multiple jaw fragments, ribs, and vertebrae. Specimens of Omphalosaurus have been described from the western United States, Poland, Austria and the island of Spitsbergen off the northern coast of Norway.

Omphalosaurus

Uncredited · Public Domain · 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
OmphalosauridaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At least 5.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 247 Mya to 241.464 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 248.6 Mya to 237 Mya.

Early Triassic — about 2 of 6 occurrencesEarly TriassicMiddle Triassic — about 4 of 6 occurrencesMiddle TriassicLate Triassic — about 0 of 6 occurrences249–248 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences248–248 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences248–247 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences247–246 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences246–246 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences246–245 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences245–245 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences245–244 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences244–244 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences244–244 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences244–243 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences243–243 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences243–242 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences242–242 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences242–242 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences242–241 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences241–241 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences241–240 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences240–240 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences240–239 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences239–239 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences239–239 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences239–238 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences238–238 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences238–237 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences237–237 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences247 Mya241.464 Mya249.1 Mya236.5 Mya

6 occurrences of Omphalosaurus on record, most of them in the Middle 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

6 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

4 formations

Prida — 40.13°N, 118.30°WPrida — 40.51°N, 118.13°WLercheck Limestone — 47.67°N, 13.06°EKarchowice — 50.50°N, 18.30°EVikinghøgda — 78.31°N, 16.60°E

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The named rock units Omphalosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Omphalosaurus and its relatives

Middle Triassic

Where Omphalosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Triassic.

Found in the same rock

28 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Omphalosaurus, 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

6 references

Each of the 6 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 content1

Picture of Omphalosaurus

Credit
Uncredited
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Omphalosaurus 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 itOmphalosauridae through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Merriam 1906