Pholidosaurus

Pholidosaurus is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodylomorph. It is the type genus of the family Pholidosauridae. Fossils have been found in northwestern Germany. The genus is known to have existed during the Berriasian-Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous. Fossil material found from the Annero and Jydegård Formations in Skåne, Sweden and on the island of Bornholm, Denmark, have been referred to as a mesoeucrocodylian, and possibly represent the genus Pholidosaurus.

Pholidosaurus

FunkMonk · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
PholidosauridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pseudosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 19 million years on record.

The record covers at least 145.06 Mya to 125.77 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 149.2 Mya to 113.2 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 1 of 9 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 8 of 9 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous150–149 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149–147 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences144–142 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences142–141 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences141–140 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences140–139 Mya — about 1 occurrence139–137 Mya — about 2 occurrences137–136 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences126–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences124–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121–120 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences120–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences117–116 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences116–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–114 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences114–112 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences145.06 Mya125.77 Mya149.9 Mya112.5 Mya

9 occurrences of Pholidosaurus on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

9 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

2 formations

Bückeberg — 52.25°N, 9.07°EDurlston — 50.61°N, 1.96°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pholidosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pholidosaurus and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Pholidosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

134 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Pholidosaurus, 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

7 references

Each of the 9 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 Pholidosaurus

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

No 3D scan of Pholidosaurus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itPholidosauridae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

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