Sunosuchus

Sunosuchus is an extinct genus of goniopholidid mesoeucrocodylian. Fossils are known from China, Kyrgyzstan, and Thailand and are Jurassic in age, although some may be Early Cretaceous. Four species are currently assigned to the genus: the type species S. miaoi and the species S. junggarensis, S. shartegensis, and S. shunanensis. All species are from China. Goniopholis phuwiangensis, also from Thailand, was reassigned to Sunosuchus by Andrade et al. (2011). The material from Kyrgyzstan has not been assigned to any species.

Sunosuchus

Thomas J.D. Halliday, Marco Brandalise De Andrade, Michael J. Benton, and Mikhail B. Efimov · 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
GoniopholididaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pseudosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 12 million years on record.

The record covers at least 161.5 Mya to 149.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 170.9 Mya to 143.1 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 3 of 11 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 8 of 11 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 11 occurrences171–170 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences170–170 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences170–169 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences169–168 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences168–167 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences167–166 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences166–165 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences165–164 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences164–163 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences163–162 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences162–161 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences161–160 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences160–159 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences159–158 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences158–157 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences157–156 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences156–155 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences144–144 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences161.5 Mya149.2 Mya171.5 Mya142.5 Mya

11 occurrences of Sunosuchus 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

11 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

7 formations

Qigu — 43.55°N, 87.26°EQigu — 43.79°N, 87.55°EBalabansai — 41.33°N, 72.25°EXiangtang — 36.34°N, 102.85°EXiangtang — 36.64°N, 103.00°EShishugou — 45.13°N, 88.95°EShaximiao — 29.41°N, 104.85°EToutunhe — 43.55°N, 87.26°EUlan Malgait — 44.07°N, 95.81°E

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The named rock units Sunosuchus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Sunosuchus and its relatives

Late Jurassic

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

Found in the same rock

114 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Sunosuchus, 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

11 references

Each of the 11 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 content1

Picture of Sunosuchus

Credit
Thomas J.D. Halliday, Marco Brandalise De Andrade, Michael J. Benton, and Mikhail B. Efimov
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sunosuchus 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 itGoniopholididae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Young 1948