Thecachampsa antiquus

Thecachampsa is an extinct genus of gavialoid crocodylian, traditionally regarded as a member of the subfamily Tomistominae. Fossils have been found from the eastern United States in deposits of Miocene age. Those named in the 19th century were distinguished primarily by the shape of their teeth, and have since been combined with T. antiquus. More recently erected species were reassigned from other genera, although their assignment to Thecachampsa has since been questioned.

Thecachampsa antiquus

Ryan Somma · CC BY 2.0 · 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
ThecachampsaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 52 million years on record.

The record covers at least 56 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 59.24 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Paleocene — about 1 of 8 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 8 occurrencesOligocene — about 0 of 8 occurrencesMiocene — about 6 of 8 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 8 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 8 occurrences60–58 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 4 occurrences5.4–3.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.4–1.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences56 Mya3.6 Mya60 Mya1 Mya

8 occurrences of Thecachampsa antiquus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

8 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

4 formations

Calvert — 38.54°N, 76.73°WCalvert — 38.17°N, 76.87°WCalvert — 37.93°N, 77.51°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WChoptank — 38.41°N, 76.42°WChoptank — 38.16°N, 76.83°WAquia — 38.50°N, 77.59°WYorktown — 35.40°N, 76.80°W

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The named rock units Thecachampsa antiquus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Thecachampsa antiquus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Thecachampsa antiquus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

306 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Thecachampsa antiquus, 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

6 references

Each of the 8 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. 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 Thecachampsa antiquus

Credit
Ryan Somma
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Thecachampsa antiquus 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 itThecachampsa through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Leidy 1852)