Teleosauroidea

Teleosauroidea is an extinct superfamily of thalattosuchian crocodyliforms living from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. It is phylogenetically defined by Mark T. Young and colleagues in 2024 in the PhyloCode as "the largest clade within Thalattosuchia containing Teleosaurus cadomensis, but not Metriorhynchus brevirostris". This group contains two main families, the more piscivorous and gracile Teleosauridae and the more macropredatory and robust Machimosauridae.

Teleosauroidea

J. E. Girardot · 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
NeothalattosuchiaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Environment
marinePBDB, for Thalattosuchia

Time the record covers

At least 71 million years on record.

The record covers at least 192.9 Mya to 121.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 201.4 Mya to 100.5 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 206 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 19 of 206 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 88 of 206 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 81 of 206 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 18 of 206 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 206 occurrences203–200 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences200–196 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences196–193 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences193–189 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences189–186 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences186–182 Mya — about 12 occurrences182–179 Mya — about 2 occurrences179–175 Mya — about 2 occurrences175–172 Mya — about 2 occurrences172–168 Mya — about 1 occurrence168–165 Mya — about 58 occurrences165–161 Mya — about 27 occurrences161–158 Mya — about 9 occurrences158–154 Mya — about 10 occurrences154–151 Mya — about 25 occurrences151–147 Mya — about 21 occurrences147–144 Mya — about 12 occurrences144–140 Mya — about 8 occurrences140–137 Mya — about 2 occurrences137–133 Mya — about 1 occurrence133–130 Mya — about 2 occurrences130–126 Mya — about 2 occurrences126–123 Mya — about 2 occurrences123–119 Mya — about 2 occurrences119–116 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences116–112 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences112–109 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences109–105 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences102–98 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences192.9 Mya121.4 Mya203 Mya98 Mya

206 occurrences of Teleosauroidea 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

206 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

60 formations

Oxford Clay — 51.83°N, 0.70°WOxford Clay — 52.57°N, 0.24°WOxford Clay — 50.61°N, 2.45°WEl 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°WDouiret — 32.68°N, 10.17°EDouiret — 33.11°N, 10.33°EDouiret — 32.87°N, 10.38°ECotswold Slate — 51.02°N, 3.25°WCotswold Slate — 51.90°N, 1.83°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.75°N, 1.18°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.59°N, 2.47°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.13°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.63°N, 2.34°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.75°N, 1.16°WForest Marble — 50.71°N, 2.78°WForest Marble — 51.86°N, 1.30°WForest Marble — 51.85°N, 0.10°WPierre de Caen — 49.15°N, 0.36°WPierre de Caen — 49.05°N, 0.32°WKsar Metlili — 32.70°N, 3.22°WChipping Norton Limestone — 51.95°N, 1.75°WChipping Norton Limestone — 51.98°N, 1.65°WChipping Norton Limestone — 51.99°N, 1.80°WAlum Shale — 54.48°N, 0.60°WAlum Shale — 54.50°N, 0.67°WPosidonia Shale — 48.63°N, 9.54°EPosidonia Shale — 49.15°N, 12.00°ELourinhã — 39.23°N, 9.34°WMarnes de Dives — 49.40°N, 0.20°WMarnes de Dives — 49.33°N, 0.00°EPhu Kradung — 16.65°N, 102.25°EAlcobaça — 39.70°N, 8.80°WAlcobaça — 39.82°N, 8.65°WSables de Glos — 49.11°N, 0.38°EGreat Oolite — 52.68°N, 0.46°WArgiles de Châtillon — 50.81°N, 1.61°EArgiles de Châtillon — 50.72°N, 1.62°EOxford Clay — 50.75°N, 1.80°EArgiles de Montaubert — 50.73°N, 1.84°EMarnes à Deltoideum delta — 49.52°N, 0.10°EFullers Earth — 50.75°N, 2.33°WZiliujing — 29.84°N, 105.66°EZiliujing — 31.15°N, 107.37°ECornbrash — 51.83°N, 1.37°WCornbrash — 50.88°N, 2.62°W

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The named rock units Teleosauroidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 36 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 70 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Teleosauroidea and its relatives

Middle Jurassic

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

Found in the same rock

685 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 158 sites for Teleosauroidea, 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

92 references

Each of the 206 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. 80 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 content3

Picture of Teleosauroidea

Credit
J. E. Girardot
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Teleosauroidea indet. · camsm:J29458

3D model

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

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 itNeothalattosuchia through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Saint-Hilaire 1831