Paramacellodus

Paramacellodus is an extinct genus of scincomorph lizards from the Early Cretaceous of England and France, and the Late Jurassic of Portugal and the western United States. The type species, Paramacellodus oweni, was named in 1967 from the earliest Cretaceous (Berriasian) Purbeck Group in Dorset, England. Additional material referable to a species of Paramacellodus, possibly P. oweni, has been described from the Morrison Formation, specifically in Como Bluff, Wyoming, and Dinosaur National Monument, Utah. An indeterminate species is known from the Berriasian aged Angeac-Charente bonebed in France. Paramacellodus belongs to an extinct family of scincomorphs called Paramacellodidae, which spanned most of Laurasia during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous and represented one of the earliest evolutionary radiations of lizards.

No picture of Paramacellodus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. 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 Paramacellodus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ParamacellodidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 55 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 110.1 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 93.9 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 24 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 11 of 24 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 11 of 24 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 24 occurrencesLate Cretaceous170–167 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences167–165 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences157–154 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences154–152 Mya — about 2 occurrences152–149 Mya — about 2 occurrences149–147 Mya — about 3 occurrences147–144 Mya — about 3 occurrences144–141 Mya — about 3 occurrences141–139 Mya — about 5 occurrences139–136 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences126–123 Mya — about 1 occurrence123–121 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences121–118 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences118–116 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences116–113 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences113–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110–108 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences103–100 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences98–95 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences95–92 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences165.3 Mya110.1 Mya170 Mya92 Mya

24 occurrences of Paramacellodus on record, most of them in the Late 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

24 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

8 formations

Morrison — 41.89°N, 106.00°WMorrison — 44.46°N, 104.73°WMorrison — 39.15°N, 108.77°WMorrison — 39.15°N, 108.77°WMorrison — 40.50°N, 109.17°WLulworth — 50.60°N, 1.97°WCloverly — 45.20°N, 109.00°WCloverly — 44.51°N, 107.90°WIlek — 55.90°N, 87.96°EKsar Metlili — 32.70°N, 3.22°WLa Huérguina — 40.22°N, 1.98°WCamarillas — 40.65°N, 0.88°WKilmaluag — 57.17°N, 6.11°W

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The named rock units Paramacellodus 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.

Paramacellodus and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Paramacellodus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

457 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Paramacellodus, 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

16 references

Each of the 24 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. 4 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 content0

No picture of Paramacellodus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.

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 Paramacellodus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Paramacellodus 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 itParamacellodidae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hoffstetter 1967