Teleosauridae

Teleosauridae is a family of extinct typically marine crocodylomorphs similar to the modern gharial that lived during the Jurassic period. Teleosaurids were thalattosuchians closely related to the fully aquatic metriorhynchoids, but were less adapted to an open-ocean, pelagic lifestyle. The family was originally coined to include all the semi-aquatic thalattosuchians and was equivalent to the modern superfamily Teleosauroidea. However, as teleosauroid relationships and diversity was better studied in the 21st century, the division of teleosauroids into two distinct evolutionary lineages led to the establishment of Teleosauridae as a more restrictive family within the group, together with its sister family Machimosauridae.

Teleosauridae

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
TeleosauroideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Environment
marinePBDB, for Thalattosuchia

Time the record covers

At least 61 million years on record.

The record covers at least 182.9 Mya to 121.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 184.2 Mya to 119.57 Mya.

Early Jurassic — about 12 of 124 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 64 of 124 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 41 of 124 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 8 of 124 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous185–183 Mya — about 6 occurrences183–181 Mya — about 3 occurrences181–179 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences179–177 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences177–174 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences174–172 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences172–170 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences170–168 Mya — about 9 occurrences168–165 Mya — about 32 occurrences165–163 Mya — about 12 occurrences163–161 Mya — about 9 occurrences161–159 Mya — about 3 occurrences159–156 Mya — about 4 occurrences156–154 Mya — about 3 occurrences154–152 Mya — about 6 occurrences152–150 Mya — about 7 occurrences150–147 Mya — about 6 occurrences147–145 Mya — about 5 occurrences145–143 Mya — about 6 occurrences143–141 Mya — about 4 occurrences141–138 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences138–136 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences136–134 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences134–132 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences121–118 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences182.9 Mya121.4 Mya185 Mya118 Mya

124 occurrences of Teleosauridae on record, most of them in the Middle Jurassic. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

124 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

37 formations

El Mers — 33.45°N, 4.42°WEl Mers — 33.43°N, 4.40°WEl Mers — 33.48°N, 4.33°WEl Mers — 33.47°N, 4.46°WEl Mers — 33.42°N, 4.45°WOxford Clay — 51.83°N, 0.70°WOxford Clay — 52.57°N, 0.24°WCotswold Slate — 51.02°N, 3.25°WCotswold Slate — 51.90°N, 1.83°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.75°N, 1.18°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.13°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.63°N, 2.34°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.75°N, 1.16°WKsar Metlili — 32.70°N, 3.22°WForest Marble — 50.71°N, 2.78°WForest Marble — 51.86°N, 1.30°WForest Marble — 51.85°N, 0.10°WChipping Norton Limestone — 51.95°N, 1.75°WChipping Norton Limestone — 51.98°N, 1.65°WChipping Norton Limestone — 51.99°N, 1.80°WPosidonia Shale — 48.63°N, 9.54°EPosidonia Shale — 49.15°N, 12.00°EPhu Kradung — 16.65°N, 102.25°EGreat Oolite — 52.68°N, 0.46°WPierre de Caen — 49.15°N, 0.36°WArgiles de Montaubert — 50.73°N, 1.84°EMarnes à Deltoideum delta — 49.52°N, 0.10°EFullers Earth — 50.75°N, 2.33°WTaynton Limestone — 51.85°N, 1.43°WMarnes de Dives — 49.40°N, 0.20°WMarnes de Dives — 49.33°N, 0.00°EOrnatenton — 52.28°N, 8.76°ESables de Glos — 49.11°N, 0.38°EReuchenette — 47.29°N, 7.38°EWadhurst Clay — 50.90°N, 0.51°ECazals — 44.50°N, 1.32°EKandreho — 17.51°S, 45.34°ETechout — 32.87°N, 10.50°ELa Casita — 24.75°N, 99.96°W

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The named rock units Teleosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 41 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Teleosauridae and its relatives

Middle Jurassic

Where Teleosauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

515 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 100 sites for Teleosauridae, 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

63 references

Each of the 124 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. 51 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 content2

Picture of Teleosauridae

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

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Teleosauridae indet. · ivpp:v:10098

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 itTeleosauroidea through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Geoffroy 1831