Pelagosaurus

Pelagosaurus is an extinct genus of thalattosuchian crocodyliform that lived during the Toarcian stage of the Lower Jurassic, around 183 Ma to 176 Ma, in shallow epicontinental seas that covered much of what is now Western Europe. The systematic taxonomy of Pelagosaurus has been fiercely disputed over the years, and was assigned to Thalattosuchia after its systematics within Teleosauridae were disputed. Pelagosaurus measured 2–3 m (6.6–9.8 ft) long.

Pelagosaurus

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
ThalattosuchiaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Environment
marinePBDB, for Thalattosuchia

Time the record covers

At most 9.5 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 184.2 Mya and 174.7 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Jurassic — about 8 of 8 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 8 occurrences184–184 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences184–184 Mya — about 2 occurrences184–183 Mya — about 2 occurrences183–183 Mya — about 2 occurrences183–183 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences183–182 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences182–182 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences182–182 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences182–181 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences181–181 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences181–181 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences181–180 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences180–180 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences180–179 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences179–179 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences179–179 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences179–178 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences178–178 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences178–178 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences178–177 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences177–177 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences177–177 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences177–176 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences176–176 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences176–176 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences176–175 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences175–175 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences175–175 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences184.7 Mya174.2 Mya

8 occurrences of Pelagosaurus on record, most of them in the Early 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

8 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

Posidonia Shale — 48.61°N, 9.48°EAlum Shale — 54.48°N, 0.60°WCalcare di Sogno — 45.83°N, 9.30°EBeacon Limstone — 50.93°N, 2.91°W

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The named rock units Pelagosaurus 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.

Pelagosaurus and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Pelagosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

43 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Pelagosaurus, 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

5 references

Each of the 8 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 Pelagosaurus

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pelagosaurus was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.

MorphoSource was 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 itThalattosuchia through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bronn 1841