Platypterygius

Platypterygius is a historically paraphyletic genus of platypterygiine ichthyosaur from the Cretaceous period. It was historically used as a wastebasket taxon, and most species within Platypterygius likely are undiagnostic at the genus or species level, or represent distinct genera, even being argued as invalid. While fossils referred to Platypterygius have been found throughout different continents, the holotype specimen was found in Germany.

Platypterygius

Roland Tanglao from Vancouver, Canada · CC BY 2.0 · 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
PlatypterygiinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Ichthyopterygia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Environment
marinePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Length
7 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 42 million years on record.

The record covers at least 143.1 Mya to 100.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 161.5 Mya to 66 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 0 of 62 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 1 of 62 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 50 of 62 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 11 of 62 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 62 occurrences163–160 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences160–157 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences157–153 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences153–150 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences150–147 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences147–144 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences144–140 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences140–137 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences137–134 Mya — about 1 occurrence134–130 Mya — about 2 occurrences130–127 Mya — about 2 occurrences127–124 Mya — about 2 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 3 occurrences120–117 Mya — about 3 occurrences117–114 Mya — about 2 occurrences114–110 Mya — about 2 occurrences110–107 Mya — about 4 occurrences107–104 Mya — about 13 occurrences104–101 Mya — about 15 occurrences101–97 Mya — about 5 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 5 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences91–87 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences87–84 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences84–81 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences71–67 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences143.1 Mya100.5 Mya163 Mya64 Mya

62 occurrences of Platypterygius 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

62 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

22 formations

Toolebuc — 20.00°S, 141.00°EToolebuc — 22.92°S, 140.58°EToolebuc — 20.84°S, 144.20°EToolebuc — 20.88°S, 143.80°EToolebuc — 20.87°S, 143.58°EToolebuc — 20.00°S, 141.18°EToolebuc — 23.12°S, 140.58°EToolebuc — 23.27°S, 140.51°EZapata — 51.11°S, 73.30°WMarnes bleues — 44.33°N, 5.17°EMarnes bleues — 44.18°N, 5.90°EMarnes bleues — 44.21°N, 6.47°EMowry Shale — 44.02°N, 104.47°WMowry Shale — 44.23°N, 104.69°WPaja — 5.47°N, 73.53°WGault — 51.08°N, 1.18°EKiowa Shale — 37.28°N, 99.67°WApón — 10.48°N, 72.42°WMelovatka — 50.88°N, 44.74°ELoon River — 60.02°N, 116.95°WRio Belgrano — 47.70°S, 71.90°WBelle Fourche — 44.10°N, 104.60°WWallumbilla — 30.85°S, 143.08°EAshville — 51.00°N, 106.00°WGrayson Marl — 32.77°N, 97.29°WAllaru Mudstone — 20.88°S, 143.80°EWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.20°N, 0.13°EBirdrong Sandstone — 23.25°S, 114.05°ERegensburger Grünsandstein — 48.90°N, 11.93°EKarai — 11.12°N, 78.95°EHudspeth — 44.60°N, 120.17°WSplit Rock — 41.95°S, 173.87°E

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The named rock units Platypterygius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Platypterygius and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

245 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 54 sites for Platypterygius, 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

43 references

Each of the 62 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. 31 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 content2

Picture of Platypterygius

Credit
Roland Tanglao from Vancouver, Canada
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itPlatypterygiinae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. von Huene 1922