Serpianosaurus mirigiolensis
Serpianosaurus is an extinct genus of pachypleurosaurs known from the Middle Triassic deposits of Switzerland and Germany. It was a small reptile, with the type specimen of S. mirigiolensis measuring 75 cm (2.46 ft) long.

Smokeybjb · 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
- SerpianosaurusPBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Sauropterygia
Time the record covers
At most 10 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 247 Mya and 237 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
13 occurrences of Serpianosaurus mirigiolensis on record, most of them in the Middle Triassic. 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
13 occurrences- Middle Triassic100%
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
1 formation
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The named rock units Serpianosaurus mirigiolensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Serpianosaurus mirigiolensis and its relatives
Middle TriassicWhere Serpianosaurus mirigiolensis and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Triassic.
Found in the same rock
41 taxa- Macrocnemus bassanii3 sites
- Ctenognathichthys bellottii2 sites
- Rieppelia heinzfurreri2 sites
- Saurichthys (Costasaurichthys) costasquamosus2 sites
- Ticinolepis2 sites
- Ticinolepis crassidens2 sites
- Ticinolepis longaeva2 sites
- Aetheodontus besanensis1 site
- Altisolepis elongignathus1 site
- Askeptosaurus italicus1 site
- Cyamodus hildegardis1 site
- Dipteronotus ornatus1 site
- Eosemionotus ceresiensis1 site
- Gracilignathichthys microlepis1 site
- Gyrolepis1 site
- Habroichthys1 site
- Habroichthys griffithi1 site
- Habroichthys minimus1 site
- Helveticosaurus zollingeri1 site
- Lariosaurus buzzii1 site
- Luganoia lepidosteoides1 site
- Macrocnemus fuyuanensis1 site
- Meridensia meridensis1 site
- Mixosaurus1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Serpianosaurus mirigiolensis, 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
1 referenceEach of the 13 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Serpianosaurus mirigiolensis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Smokeybjb
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Serpianosaurus mirigiolensis was found in Sketchfab.
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 itSerpianosaurus through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rieppel 1989