Thunnosauria

Thunnosauria is an extinct clade of parvipelvian ichthyosaurs from the Early Jurassic to the early Late Cretaceous (Hettangian–Cenomanian) of Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. Named by Ryosuke Motani in 1999, it contains the basal taxa Ichthyosaurus and Stenopterygius and the family Ophthalmosauridae. In thunnosaurs, the fore fin is at least twice as long as the hind fin.

Thunnosauria

Ballista at English Wikipedia · 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
NeoichthyosauriaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Ichthyopterygia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Environment
marinePBDB, for Ichthyosauria

Time the record covers

At least 140 million years on record.

The record covers at least 247 Mya to 106.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 248.6 Mya to 93.9 Mya.

Early Triassic — about 1 of 157 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 157 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 18 of 157 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 101 of 157 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 12 of 157 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 16 of 157 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 9 of 157 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 157 occurrences252–246 Mya — about 1 occurrence241–236 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences236–230 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences230–225 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences225–220 Mya — about 1 occurrence220–214 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences214–209 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences209–203 Mya — about 8 occurrences203–198 Mya — about 32 occurrences198–193 Mya — about 14 occurrences193–187 Mya — about 4 occurrences187–182 Mya — about 48 occurrences182–177 Mya — about 7 occurrences177–171 Mya — about 7 occurrences171–166 Mya — about 2 occurrences166–161 Mya — about 7 occurrences161–155 Mya — about 2 occurrences155–150 Mya — about 6 occurrences150–144 Mya — about 7 occurrences144–139 Mya — about 2 occurrences139–134 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences134–128 Mya — about 2 occurrences128–123 Mya — about 2 occurrences123–118 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences118–112 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences112–107 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences107–102 Mya — about 1 occurrence102–96 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences96–91 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences247 Mya106.3 Mya252 Mya91 Mya

157 occurrences of Thunnosauria on record, most of them in the Early 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

157 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

29 formations

Posidonia Shale — 48.63°N, 9.52°EBlue Lias — 50.70°N, 2.97°WBlue Lias — 52.36°N, 1.86°WBlue Lias — 52.03°N, 2.15°WBlue Lias — 50.73°N, 2.92°WBlue Lias — 51.13°N, 2.77°WBlue Lias — 51.13°N, 2.73°WWhite Lias — 51.12°N, 2.73°WAlum Shale — 54.55°N, 0.88°WAlum Shale — 54.48°N, 0.60°WAlum Shale — 54.45°N, 0.53°WOpalinuston — 48.65°N, 9.58°EOpalinuston — 48.66°N, 9.65°EWestbury — 51.60°N, 2.63°WWestbury — 51.82°N, 2.41°WWestbury — 51.93°N, 2.23°WLuning — 38.43°N, 118.05°WOxford Clay — 51.75°N, 1.24°WOxford Clay — 51.73°N, 1.21°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.74°N, 1.31°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.13°WMont-Lambert — 50.77°N, 1.63°EExter — 48.55°N, 9.07°EExter — 48.56°N, 9.07°ECharmouth Mudstone — 50.71°N, 2.96°WCharmouth Mudstone — 50.73°N, 2.91°WCerritos Bayos — 22.56°S, 69.14°WLuxembourg — 49.72°N, 5.80°ELias — 51.40°N, 2.46°WSandilands — 53.93°N, 133.15°WFaringdon Sand — 51.65°N, 1.58°WWhitby Mudstone — 54.53°N, 0.70°WOtter Point — 42.59°N, 124.40°WSables de Mortinsart — 49.71°N, 5.62°EGrès de Mortinsart — 49.70°N, 5.66°EBeacon Limstone — 50.93°N, 2.91°WLa Casita — 26.98°N, 102.08°WArgiles de Montaubert — 50.73°N, 1.84°E

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The named rock units Thunnosauria has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 68 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Thunnosauria and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Thunnosauria and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

507 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 108 sites for Thunnosauria, 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

63 references

Each of the 157 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. 51 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 Thunnosauria

Credit
Ballista at English Wikipedia
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Thunnosauria 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 itNeoichthyosauria through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Motani 1999)