Pliosauridae

Pliosauridae is a family of plesiosaurian marine reptiles from the Latest Triassic to the early Late Cretaceous. The family is more inclusive than the archetypal short-necked large headed species that are placed in the subclade Thalassophonea, with early, primitive forms resembling other plesiosaurs with long necks.

Pliosauridae

Ghedoghedo · 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
PliosauroideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pliosauroidea
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Pliosauroidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Pliosauroidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pliosauroidea

Time the record covers

At least 127 million years on record.

The record covers at least 199.5 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 201.4 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 195 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 18 of 195 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 37 of 195 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 88 of 195 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 27 of 195 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 25 of 195 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 195 occurrences204–199 Mya — about 7 occurrences199–195 Mya — about 2 occurrences195–190 Mya — about 2 occurrences190–185 Mya — about 2 occurrences185–181 Mya — about 4 occurrences181–176 Mya — about 2 occurrences176–171 Mya — about 1 occurrence171–167 Mya — about 2 occurrences167–162 Mya — about 32 occurrences162–157 Mya — about 11 occurrences157–152 Mya — about 28 occurrences152–148 Mya — about 32 occurrences148–143 Mya — about 21 occurrences143–138 Mya — about 2 occurrences138–134 Mya — about 1 occurrence134–129 Mya — about 2 occurrences129–124 Mya — about 3 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 6 occurrences120–115 Mya — about 5 occurrences115–110 Mya — about 4 occurrences110–106 Mya — about 1 occurrence106–101 Mya — about 4 occurrences101–96 Mya — about 6 occurrences96–91 Mya — about 10 occurrences91–87 Mya — about 5 occurrences87–82 Mya — about 1 occurrence82–77 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences199.5 Mya72.2 Mya204 Mya63 Mya

195 occurrences of Pliosauridae 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

195 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

59 formations

Kimmeridge Clay — 51.74°N, 1.31°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.25°N, 2.16°WKimmeridge Clay — 52.35°N, 0.22°EKimmeridge Clay — 51.76°N, 1.20°WKimmeridge Clay — 52.40°N, 0.28°EKimmeridge Clay — 53.39°N, 0.34°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.45°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.13°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.57°N, 1.80°WKimmeridge Clay — 54.15°N, 0.23°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.72°N, 1.16°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.57°N, 2.45°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.41°N, 2.00°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.35°N, 1.99°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.63°N, 2.34°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.80°N, 0.85°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.03°N, 2.21°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.04°N, 2.28°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.92°N, 2.90°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.37°N, 2.17°WOxford Clay — 52.54°N, 0.25°WOxford Clay — 51.75°N, 1.18°WOxford Clay — 52.57°N, 0.23°WOxford Clay — 52.07°N, 0.50°WOxford Clay — 52.22°N, 0.26°WOxford Clay — 50.61°N, 2.45°WOxford Clay — 51.50°N, 2.06°WOxford Clay — 52.55°N, 0.12°WPaja — 5.63°N, 73.57°WPaja — 5.65°N, 73.56°WPaja — 5.57°N, 73.53°WOrnatenton — 52.28°N, 8.76°EBlue Lias — 51.13°N, 2.77°WBlue Lias — 51.13°N, 2.73°WBlue Lias — 52.03°N, 2.15°WCarlile Shale — 39.47°N, 98.95°WCarlile Shale — 38.39°N, 99.83°WCarlile Shale — 39.05°N, 99.02°WCarlile Shale — 39.19°N, 99.03°WVaca Muerta — 39.19°S, 69.67°WVaca Muerta — 38.11°S, 70.50°WGreenhorn Limestone — 37.22°N, 103.60°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.00°N, 98.92°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.91°N, 98.53°WWhite Lias — 51.12°N, 2.73°WLa Casita — 24.13°N, 100.18°WLa Casita — 24.96°N, 100.97°WCoral Rag — 54.13°N, 0.80°WCoral Rag — 51.75°N, 1.13°WLa Caja — 24.44°N, 99.18°WLa Caja — 25.04°N, 100.95°WLa Caja — 25.04°N, 101.76°WAmpthill Clay — 52.18°N, 0.13°WWhitby Mudstone — 54.40°N, 0.50°WWhitby Mudstone — 54.49°N, 0.61°WWallumbilla — 20.22°S, 143.13°EWallumbilla — 30.85°S, 143.08°EUmia — 23.68°N, 69.02°EUmia — 23.73°N, 69.86°EToolebuc — 20.84°S, 144.20°EToolebuc — 20.73°S, 143.14°ECharmouth Mudstone — 50.73°N, 2.91°WOxford Clay — 50.75°N, 1.80°EAgardhfjellet — 78.32°N, 16.18°EKimmeridge Clay — 49.49°N, 0.11°EZiliujing — 29.55°N, 104.62°EZiliujing — 29.55°N, 104.61°EArgiles de Montaubert — 50.73°N, 1.84°ETropic Shale — 37.08°N, 111.66°W

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The named rock units Pliosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 35 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 23 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pliosauridae and its relatives

Late Jurassic

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

Found in the same rock

512 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 164 sites for Pliosauridae, 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

112 references

Each of the 195 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. 100 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 content3

Picture of Pliosauridae

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
Pliosauridae indet. · nhmuk:pal:NHMUK PV R 1215

3D model

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

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 itPliosauroidea through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Seeley 1874