Ticinosuchus

Ticinosuchus is an extinct genus of suchian archosaur from the Middle Triassic (Anisian–Ladinian) of Switzerland and Italy. The genus name means "Ticino crocodile" due to its origin from the Swiss canton Ticino. It is one of the only terrestrial animals found in the Besano Formation, a fossil-rich lagerstätte on Monte San Giorgio renowned for its marine fauna.

Ticinosuchus

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
SuchiaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pseudosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At most 5.6 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 247 Mya and 241.464 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Triassic — about 0 of 3 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 3 of 3 occurrencesMiddle Triassic247–247 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences247–246 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences246–246 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences246–246 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences246–246 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences246–246 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences246–245 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences245–245 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences245–245 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences245–245 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences245–244 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences244–244 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences244–244 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences244–244 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences244–244 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences244–243 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences243–243 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences243–243 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences243–243 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences243–242 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences242–242 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences242–242 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences242–242 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences242–242 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences242–241 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences247.5 Mya241 Mya

3 occurrences of Ticinosuchus on record, most of them in the Middle Triassic. 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

3 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

2 formations

Besano — 45.91°N, 8.94°ESan Salvatore — 45.86°N, 8.81°E

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

Ticinosuchus and its relatives

Middle Triassic

Where Ticinosuchus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Triassic.

Found in the same rock

17 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Ticinosuchus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

2 references

Each of the 3 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Ticinosuchus

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ticinosuchus 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 itSuchia through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Krebs 1965