Tethysuchia

Tethysuchia is an extinct clade of neosuchian mesoeucrocodylian crocodylomorphs from the late Middle Jurassic to the Early Eocene of Asia, Europe, North America and South America. It was named by the French paleontologist Eric Buffetaut in 1982 as a suborder. Tethysuchia was considered to be a synonym of Dyrosauridae or Pholidosauridae for many years. In most phylogenetic analyses the node Dyrosauridae+Pholidosauridae was strongly supported. De Andrade et al. (2011) suggested that Tethysuchia be resurrected for that node. They defined it as a node-based taxon "composed of Pholidosaurus purbeckensis and Dyrosaurus phosphaticus, their common ancestor and all its descendants". In their analysis they found that the support for Tethysuchia is actually stronger than the support for Thalattosuchia. The following cladogram shows the position of Tethysuchia among the Neosuchia.

Tethysuchia

J. Erxleben · 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
CoelognathosuchiaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pseudosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 127 million years on record.

The record covers at least 168.2 Mya to 41.03 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 170.9 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 2 of 196 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 4 of 196 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 42 of 196 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 62 of 196 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 70 of 196 occurrencesEocene — about 16 of 196 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 196 occurrences174–169 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences169–164 Mya — about 1 occurrence159–155 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences155–150 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences150–145 Mya — about 2 occurrences145–140 Mya — about 4 occurrences140–136 Mya — about 6 occurrences136–131 Mya — about 1 occurrence131–126 Mya — about 3 occurrences126–121 Mya — about 5 occurrences121–117 Mya — about 6 occurrences117–112 Mya — about 6 occurrences112–107 Mya — about 4 occurrences107–102 Mya — about 5 occurrences102–98 Mya — about 12 occurrences98–93 Mya — about 14 occurrences93–88 Mya — about 3 occurrences88–83 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences83–79 Mya — about 5 occurrences79–74 Mya — about 5 occurrences74–69 Mya — about 13 occurrences69–64 Mya — about 23 occurrences64–60 Mya — about 31 occurrences60–55 Mya — about 30 occurrences55–50 Mya — about 8 occurrences50–45 Mya — about 4 occurrences45–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–31 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences168.2 Mya41.03 Mya174 Mya31 Mya

196 occurrences of Tethysuchia on record, most of them in the Paleocene. 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

196 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

66 formations

Umm Himar — 21.17°N, 41.42°EUmm Himar — 21.18°N, 41.50°EHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WHornerstown — 40.13°N, 74.51°WHornerstown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.16°WHornerstown — 40.12°N, 74.55°WHornerstown — 39.82°N, 75.01°WHornerstown — 40.30°N, 74.10°WCloverly — 44.65°N, 107.88°WCloverly — 44.51°N, 107.90°WCloverly — 44.50°N, 107.82°WCloverly — 44.47°N, 109.05°WCloverly — 44.44°N, 109.06°WCloverly — 45.19°N, 108.80°WSanta Lucía — 18.03°S, 65.58°WSanta Lucía — 18.13°S, 65.76°WSanta Lucía — 18.03°S, 65.78°WDuwi — 25.20°N, 32.70°EDuwi — 26.10°N, 34.28°EDuwi — 26.10°N, 34.10°ECerrejón — 11.15°N, 72.55°WCerrejón — 11.15°N, 72.55°WCerrejón — 11.14°N, 72.56°WGafsa Phosphates — 34.33°N, 8.41°ECedar Mountain — 39.05°N, 111.04°WCedar Mountain — 38.69°N, 111.26°WCedar Mountain — 38.88°N, 111.27°WCedar Mountain — 38.64°N, 111.37°WQuseir — 25.25°N, 30.58°EQuseir — 25.62°N, 29.29°EQuseir — 24.73°N, 30.62°ECouche II — 32.68°N, 6.72°WCouche II — 32.72°N, 6.78°WLewisville — 32.84°N, 97.07°WLewisville — 33.22°N, 97.13°WLewisville — 33.11°N, 97.02°WMaria Farinha — 7.91°S, 34.85°WAïn el Guettar — 32.95°N, 10.28°EAïn el Guettar — 32.27°N, 10.33°EPhu Kradung — 17.18°N, 102.42°EPhu Kradung — 16.27°N, 104.43°EDakota — 38.00°N, 98.00°WDakota — 38.84°N, 97.65°WDakota — 38.92°N, 98.50°WContinental Intercalaire — 27.03°N, 1.08°EContinental Intercalaire — 29.25°N, 0.25°EGara Sbaa — 30.51°N, 4.84°WWadi Milk — 16.70°N, 31.14°EEl Castellar — 40.67°N, 0.67°WBenton Shale — 45.43°N, 108.53°WDange — 13.32°N, 5.40°EBückeberg — 52.25°N, 9.07°ETamaguélelt — 17.59°N, 0.25°ETamaguélelt — 17.59°N, 0.25°EElrhaz — 16.47°N, 9.17°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Tethysuchia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 42 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 45 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Tethysuchia and its relatives

Paleocene

Where Tethysuchia and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.

Found in the same rock

972 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 168 sites for Tethysuchia, 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

109 references

Each of the 196 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. 97 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 Tethysuchia

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

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itCoelognathosuchia through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Buffetaut 1982)