Thalattosuchia

Thalattosuchia is a clade of mostly marine crocodylomorphs from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous that had a cosmopolitan distribution. They are colloquially referred to as marine crocodiles or sea crocodiles, though they are not members of Crocodilia and records from Thailand and China suggest that some members lived in freshwater. The clade contains two major subgroupings, the Teleosauroidea and Metriorhynchoidea. Teleosauroids are not greatly specialised for oceanic life, with back osteoderms similar to other crocodyliformes. Within Metriorhynchoidea, the Metriorhynchidae displayed extreme adaptions for life in the open ocean, including the transformation of limbs into flippers, the development of a tail fluke, and smooth, scaleless skin, and probably gave live birth, seemingly uniquely among archosaurs.

Thalattosuchia

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
Also called
marine crocodilePBDB
Sits inside
CrocodylomorphaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Environment
marinePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 73 million years on record.

The record covers at least 192.9 Mya to 119.57 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 201.4 Mya to 100.5 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 463 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 71 of 463 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 141 of 463 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 209 of 463 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 42 of 463 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 463 occurrences203–200 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences200–196 Mya — about 2 occurrences196–193 Mya — about 3 occurrences193–189 Mya — about 1 occurrence189–186 Mya — about 1 occurrence186–182 Mya — about 42 occurrences182–179 Mya — about 9 occurrences179–175 Mya — about 10 occurrences175–172 Mya — about 5 occurrences172–168 Mya — about 6 occurrences168–165 Mya — about 71 occurrences165–161 Mya — about 61 occurrences161–158 Mya — about 17 occurrences158–154 Mya — about 21 occurrences154–151 Mya — about 60 occurrences151–147 Mya — about 63 occurrences147–144 Mya — about 41 occurrences144–140 Mya — about 16 occurrences140–137 Mya — about 5 occurrences137–133 Mya — about 9 occurrences133–130 Mya — about 4 occurrences130–126 Mya — about 3 occurrences126–123 Mya — about 3 occurrences123–119 Mya — about 4 occurrences119–116 Mya — about 2 occurrences116–112 Mya — about 1 occurrence112–109 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences109–105 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences102–98 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences192.9 Mya119.57 Mya203 Mya98 Mya

463 occurrences of Thalattosuchia on record, most of them in the Late 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

463 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

105 formations

Oxford Clay — 52.60°N, 0.21°WOxford Clay — 51.83°N, 0.70°WOxford Clay — 51.75°N, 1.18°WOxford Clay — 51.37°N, 2.14°WOxford Clay — 50.61°N, 2.45°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.74°N, 1.31°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.75°N, 1.18°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.25°N, 2.16°WKimmeridge Clay — 52.40°N, 0.28°EKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.13°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.45°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.56°N, 1.78°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.35°N, 1.99°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.41°N, 2.00°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.76°N, 1.20°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.63°N, 2.34°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.36°N, 1.65°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.16°WPosidonia Shale — 48.61°N, 9.48°EPosidonia Shale — 48.64°N, 9.62°EPosidonia Shale — 48.65°N, 9.63°EPosidonia Shale — 49.48°N, 11.78°EPosidonia Shale — 49.92°N, 11.47°EPosidonia Shale — 49.15°N, 12.00°EVaca Muerta — 36.30°S, 69.50°WVaca Muerta — 37.30°S, 69.80°WVaca Muerta — 39.19°S, 69.67°WVaca Muerta — 38.83°S, 70.20°WVaca Muerta — 39.12°S, 69.42°WVaca Muerta — 35.90°S, 70.27°WVaca Muerta — 37.11°S, 69.48°WVaca Muerta — 34.97°S, 69.82°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°WAlum Shale — 54.48°N, 0.60°WAlum Shale — 54.50°N, 0.67°WLa Casita — 24.13°N, 100.18°WLa Casita — 24.75°N, 99.96°WLa Casita — 24.13°N, 100.78°WLa Casita — 25.02°N, 100.41°WLa Casita — 24.96°N, 100.97°WMörnsheim — 48.79°N, 10.90°EDouiret — 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°WLa Caja — 25.04°N, 100.95°WLa Caja — 24.44°N, 99.18°WTorleite — 49.01°N, 11.83°ETorleite — 50.03°N, 11.12°EMarnes de Dives — 49.33°N, 0.00°EMarnes de Dives — 49.40°N, 0.20°WPierre de Caen — 49.15°N, 0.36°WPierre de Caen — 49.05°N, 0.32°WForest Marble — 50.71°N, 2.78°WForest Marble — 51.86°N, 1.30°WForest Marble — 51.85°N, 0.10°WJagua — 22.38°N, 83.50°WJagua — 22.62°N, 83.71°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°WReuchenette — 47.29°N, 7.38°EReuchenette — 47.33°N, 7.64°EReuchenette — 47.39°N, 7.03°EAltmühltal — 48.93°N, 11.15°ECharmouth Mudstone — 50.73°N, 2.92°WCharmouth Mudstone — 53.62°N, 0.64°WOrnatenton — 52.28°N, 8.76°EMergelstetten — 48.70°N, 10.17°ERosso Ammonitico Veronese — 45.52°N, 10.83°ERosso Ammonitico Veronese — 45.84°N, 11.43°ERosso Ammonitico Veronese — 45.88°N, 11.61°E

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The named rock units Thalattosuchia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 81 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 137 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Thalattosuchia and its relatives

Late Jurassic

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

Found in the same rock

932 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 323 sites for Thalattosuchia, and this reads 240 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

179 references

Each of the 463 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. 167 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 Thalattosuchia

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

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Thalattosuchia indet. · UNIBA:AČ:DE-vPAL 9 in situ

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 itCrocodylomorpha through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Fraas 1901)