Peloneustes philarchus

Peloneustes is a genus of pliosaurid plesiosaur from the Middle Jurassic of England. Its remains are known from the Peterborough Member of the Oxford Clay Formation, which is Callovian in age. It was originally described as a species of Plesiosaurus by palaeontologist Harry Govier Seeley in 1869, before being given its own genus by naturalist Richard Lydekker in 1889. While many species have been assigned to this genus, P. philarchus is currently the only one still considered valid, with the others moved to different genera, considered nomina dubia, or synonymised with P. philarchus. The taxon is known from many specimens, including some very complete material.

Peloneustes philarchus

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikidata/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
PeloneustesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pliosauroidea
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Pliosauroidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Pliosauroidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pliosauroidea

Time the record covers

At most 3.8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 165.3 Mya and 161.5 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Middle Jurassic — about 11 of 11 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 0 of 11 occurrences165–165 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences165–165 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences165–165 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences165–165 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences165–165 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences165–164 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences164–164 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences164–164 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences164–164 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences164–164 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences164–164 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences164–163 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences163–163 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences163–163 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences163–163 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences163–163 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences163–163 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences163–162 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences162–162 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences162–162 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences162–162 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences162–162 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences162–162 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences162–161 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences165.8 Mya161 Mya

11 occurrences of Peloneustes philarchus 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

11 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

3 formations

Oxford Clay — 52.57°N, 0.23°WOxford Clay — 52.12°N, 0.52°WOxford Clay — 51.50°N, 2.06°WOxford Clay — 52.55°N, 0.12°WArgiles de Montaubert — 50.73°N, 1.84°EOxford Clay — 50.75°N, 1.80°E

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

Peloneustes philarchus and its relatives

Middle Jurassic

Where Peloneustes philarchus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

48 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Peloneustes philarchus, 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

8 references

Each of the 11 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 content2

Picture of Peloneustes philarchus

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Peloneustes philarchus · NHMUK:PAL:PV R 3803

Smithsonian Open Access 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 itPeloneustes through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Seeley 1869)