Thalassophonea

Pliosauridae is a family of plesiosaurian marine reptiles from the Latest Triassic to the early Late Cretaceous. The family is more inclusive than the archetypal short-necked large headed species that are placed in the subclade Thalassophonea, with early, primitive forms resembling other plesiosaurs with long necks.

Thalassophonea

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
PliosauridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pliosauroidea
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Pliosauroidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Pliosauroidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pliosauroidea

Time the record covers

At least 96 million years on record.

The record covers at least 168.2 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 201.4 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 131 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 131 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 29 of 131 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 72 of 131 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 15 of 131 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 15 of 131 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 131 occurrences204–199 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences199–195 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences195–190 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences190–185 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences185–181 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences181–176 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences176–171 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences171–167 Mya — about 1 occurrence167–162 Mya — about 25 occurrences162–157 Mya — about 7 occurrences157–152 Mya — about 24 occurrences152–148 Mya — about 26 occurrences148–143 Mya — about 18 occurrences143–138 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences138–134 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences134–129 Mya — about 1 occurrence129–124 Mya — about 1 occurrence124–120 Mya — about 2 occurrences120–115 Mya — about 4 occurrences115–110 Mya — about 3 occurrences110–106 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences106–101 Mya — about 1 occurrence101–96 Mya — about 4 occurrences96–91 Mya — about 6 occurrences91–87 Mya — about 3 occurrences87–82 Mya — about 1 occurrence73–68 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences168.2 Mya72.2 Mya204 Mya63 Mya

131 occurrences of Thalassophonea 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

131 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

35 formations

Kimmeridge Clay — 51.74°N, 1.31°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.25°N, 2.16°WKimmeridge Clay — 52.35°N, 0.22°EKimmeridge Clay — 51.76°N, 1.20°WKimmeridge Clay — 52.40°N, 0.28°EKimmeridge Clay — 53.39°N, 0.34°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.45°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.13°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.57°N, 1.80°WKimmeridge Clay — 54.15°N, 0.23°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.72°N, 1.16°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.57°N, 2.45°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.41°N, 2.00°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.35°N, 1.99°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.63°N, 2.34°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.80°N, 0.85°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.03°N, 2.21°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.04°N, 2.28°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.92°N, 2.90°WOxford Clay — 52.57°N, 0.23°WOxford Clay — 52.12°N, 0.52°WOxford Clay — 50.61°N, 2.45°WOxford Clay — 51.50°N, 2.06°WOxford Clay — 52.55°N, 0.12°WOrnatenton — 52.28°N, 8.76°EGreenhorn Limestone — 37.22°N, 103.60°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.00°N, 98.92°WGreenhorn Limestone — 38.91°N, 98.53°WPaja — 5.63°N, 73.57°WPaja — 5.65°N, 73.56°WPaja — 5.57°N, 73.53°WVaca Muerta — 39.19°S, 69.67°WVaca Muerta — 38.07°S, 70.50°WCoral Rag — 54.13°N, 0.80°WCoral Rag — 51.75°N, 1.13°WAmpthill Clay — 52.18°N, 0.13°WWallumbilla — 20.22°S, 143.13°EWallumbilla — 30.85°S, 143.08°EUmia — 23.68°N, 69.02°EUmia — 23.73°N, 69.86°EToolebuc — 20.84°S, 144.20°EToolebuc — 20.73°S, 143.14°EOxford Clay — 50.75°N, 1.80°EAgardhfjellet — 78.32°N, 16.18°EKimmeridge Clay — 49.49°N, 0.11°EArgiles de Montaubert — 50.73°N, 1.84°ETropic Shale — 37.08°N, 111.66°WPeña — 29.62°N, 105.05°WPeña — 29.48°N, 104.85°WFaringdon Sand — 51.65°N, 1.58°WEutaw — 32.77°N, 87.87°WJagua — 22.62°N, 83.63°WPortland Stone — 51.55°N, 1.79°WEagle Ford — 30.25°N, 97.75°WCarlile Shale — 39.05°N, 99.02°WSavel'evsk oil shales — 51.75°N, 48.85°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Thalassophonea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Thalassophonea and its relatives

Late Jurassic

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

Found in the same rock

294 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 104 sites for Thalassophonea, 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

66 references

Each of the 131 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. 54 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 Thalassophonea

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

No 3D scan of Thalassophonea was found in Sketchfab.

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 itPliosauridae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Benson and Druckenmiller 2014