Stenopterygius

Stenopterygius is an extinct genus of thunnosaur ichthyosaur known from Europe. It was a medium-sized ichthyosaur, with multiple well-preserved specimens, including one which preserved evidence of countershading, blubber and a raised, homeothermic metabolism. as well as a female specimen that died in childbirth that showed that the genus preferred tail-first births similar to modern cetaceans.

Stenopterygius

Haplochromis · 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
ThunnosauriaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Ichthyopterygia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Environment
marinePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Length
3.15 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 8.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 182.9 Mya to 174.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 184.2 Mya to 170.9 Mya.

Early Jurassic — about 43 of 47 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 4 of 47 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic184–184 Mya — about 13 occurrences184–183 Mya — about 14 occurrences183–183 Mya — about 11 occurrences183–182 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences182–182 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences182–181 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences181–181 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences181–180 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences180–180 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences180–179 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences179–179 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences179–179 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences179–178 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences178–178 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences178–177 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences177–177 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences177–176 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences176–176 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences176–175 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences175–175 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences175–174 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences174–174 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences174–173 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences173–173 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences173–172 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences172–172 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences172–171 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences171–171 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences182.9 Mya174.7 Mya184.7 Mya170.4 Mya

47 occurrences of Stenopterygius on record, most of them in the Early 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

47 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

3 formations

Posidonia Shale — 48.63°N, 9.52°EOpalinuston — 48.65°N, 9.58°EOpalinuston — 48.66°N, 9.65°EBeacon Limstone — 50.93°N, 2.91°W

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The named rock units Stenopterygius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 21 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Stenopterygius and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Stenopterygius and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

51 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 20 sites for Stenopterygius, 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 47 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 content2

Picture of Stenopterygius

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itThunnosauria through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Jaekel 1904