Sphenodontidae

Sphenodontidae is a family within the reptile group Rhynchocephalia, comprising taxa most closely related to the living tuatara. Historically the taxa included within Sphenodontidae have varied greatly between analyses, and the group has lacked a formal definition. Cynosphenodon from the Jurassic of Mexico has consistently been recovered as a close relative of the tuatara in most analyses, with the clade containing the two and other very close relatives of the tuatara often called Sphenodontinae.

Sphenodontidae

No machine-readable author provided. Knutschie assumed (based on copyright claims). · Public Domain · 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
RhynchocephaliaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 246 million years on record.

The record covers at least 247 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 248.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Permian — about 0 of 100 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 1 of 100 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 100 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 29 of 100 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 8 of 100 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 100 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 21 of 100 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 18 of 100 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 6 of 100 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 100 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 100 occurrencesOligocene — about 0 of 100 occurrencesMiocene — about 2 of 100 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 100 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 100 occurrences254–245 Mya — about 1 occurrence245–237 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences237–228 Mya — about 11 occurrences228–220 Mya — about 6 occurrences220–211 Mya — about 5 occurrences211–203 Mya — about 5 occurrences203–194 Mya — about 4 occurrences194–186 Mya — about 3 occurrences186–178 Mya — about 1 occurrence178–169 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences161–152 Mya — about 2 occurrences152–144 Mya — about 19 occurrences144–135 Mya — about 3 occurrences135–127 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences127–118 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences118–110 Mya — about 9 occurrences110–101 Mya — about 5 occurrences101–93 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences76–68 Mya — about 4 occurrences68–59 Mya — about 3 occurrences25–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–8.5 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences8.5–0 Mya — about 14 occurrences247 Mya11.7 ka254 Mya0 Mya

100 occurrences of Sphenodontidae on record, most of them in the Late Triassic. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

100 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

33 formations

Morrison — 41.89°N, 106.00°WMorrison — 38.54°N, 105.19°WMorrison — 40.44°N, 109.32°WMorrison — 38.81°N, 108.32°WMorrison — 38.32°N, 108.83°WMorrison — 40.47°N, 109.18°WMorrison — 39.15°N, 108.78°WChinle — 34.44°N, 109.46°WChinle — 35.84°N, 111.25°WChinle — 35.65°N, 111.12°WChinle — 35.05°N, 109.84°WChinle — 34.68°N, 109.58°WChinle — 35.03°N, 109.83°WCandeleros — 39.62°S, 69.35°WCandeleros — 39.71°S, 68.60°WCandeleros — 39.63°S, 68.70°WLos Alamitos — 41.95°S, 66.33°WTecovas — 33.43°N, 101.16°WTecovas — 35.38°N, 102.16°WHillgrove — 45.13°S, 170.97°ELa Boca — 26.60°N, 99.52°WQuebrada del Barro — 31.60°S, 67.40°WQuebrada del Barro — 31.60°S, 67.29°WTlayúa — 18.59°N, 97.90°WForest Sandstone — 16.22°S, 30.10°EForest Sandstone — 16.12°S, 29.50°EKlettgau — 47.50°N, 8.02°EKlettgau — 47.71°N, 8.45°EBannockburn — 44.91°S, 169.86°EBannockburn — 44.88°S, 169.75°EPainten — 48.92°N, 11.58°EPainten — 49.01°N, 11.83°EMörnsheim — 48.86°N, 10.99°EMörnsheim — 48.84°N, 10.85°ECerro Barcino — 43.15°S, 68.43°WCerro Barcino — 43.13°S, 68.47°WHuincul — 39.40°S, 68.62°WTrossingen — 51.90°N, 11.07°EKota — 19.27°N, 79.52°EMarnes de Jamoigne — 49.72°N, 5.22°EAllen — 40.06°S, 66.80°WSables de Glos — 49.11°N, 0.38°ERedonda — 34.95°N, 103.44°WKootenai — 45.47°N, 112.55°WCumnock — 35.62°N, 79.10°W

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The named rock units Sphenodontidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 29 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sphenodontidae and its relatives

Late Triassic

Where Sphenodontidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.

Found in the same rock

906 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 92 sites for Sphenodontidae, 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

61 references

Each of the 100 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. 49 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 content1

Picture of Sphenodontidae

Credit
No machine-readable author provided. Knutschie assumed (based on copyright claims).
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sphenodontidae 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 itRhynchocephalia through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1871