Thoracosaurus

Thoracosaurus is an extinct genus of long-snouted eusuchian which existed during the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleocene in North America and Europe.

Thoracosaurus

Uncredited · 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
GavialidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 16 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 56 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 48.07 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 53 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 41 of 53 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 11 of 53 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 1 of 53 occurrencesEocene102–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences96–94 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences94–92 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89–87 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–83 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences74–72 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 9 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 10 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 10 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 7 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 2 occurrences63–62 Mya — about 2 occurrences60–58 Mya — about 2 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 3 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–49 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72.2 Mya56 Mya102 Mya47 Mya

53 occurrences of Thoracosaurus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

53 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

18 formations

Hell Creek — 45.98°N, 103.75°WHell Creek — 46.38°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.00°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WHornerstown — 40.12°N, 74.55°WHornerstown — 40.15°N, 74.72°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.16°WHornerstown — 40.30°N, 74.10°WHornerstown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WVincentown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WVincentown — 39.93°N, 74.75°WVincentown — 39.88°N, 75.09°WVincentown — 39.86°N, 74.82°WSevern — 38.91°N, 76.85°WSevern — 38.96°N, 76.71°WRhems — 33.67°N, 79.83°WNanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WBlufftown — 32.16°N, 85.03°WFruitland — 36.49°N, 108.49°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.65°WMount Laurel — 40.26°N, 74.27°WWilliamsburg — 33.43°N, 80.10°WMarnes d'Auzas — 43.21°N, 0.96°EKøbenhavn Limestone — 55.57°N, 12.93°EMaastrichter Tuffkreide — 50.83°N, 5.68°EMatawan — 39.11°N, 76.54°WArén — 42.35°N, 0.52°EMøns Klint — 54.97°N, 12.55°EDemopolis — 34.58°N, 88.63°W

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The named rock units Thoracosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Thoracosaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Thoracosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

676 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 50 sites for Thoracosaurus, 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

26 references

Each of the 53 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. 14 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 content2

Picture of Thoracosaurus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Thoracosaurus isorhynchus · lu:geol:3076

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 itGavialidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

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