Trilophosauridae

Trilophosaurs are lizard-like Triassic allokotosaur reptiles related to the archosaurs. The best known genus is Trilophosaurus, a herbivore up to 2.5 metres long. It had a short, unusually heavily built skull, equipped with massive, broad flattened cheek teeth with sharp shearing surfaces for cutting up tough plant material. Teeth are absent from the premaxilla and front of the lower jaw, which in life were probably equipped with a horny beak.

Trilophosauridae

Dr. Jeff Martz/NPS Petrified Forest from Petrified Forest, USA · 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
ArchosauromorphaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At least 35 million years on record.

The record covers at least 241.464 Mya to 205.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 247 Mya to 201.4 Mya.

Early Triassic — about 0 of 15 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 1 of 15 occurrencesMiddle TriassicLate Triassic — about 14 of 15 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 15 occurrences248–246 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences246–245 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences245–243 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences243–242 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences242–240 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences238–237 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences237–235 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences235–234 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences234–232 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences232–231 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences231–229 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences229–227 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences227–226 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences226–224 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences224–223 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences223–221 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences221–219 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences219–218 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences218–216 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences216–215 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences215–213 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences213–212 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences212–210 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences210–208 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences208–207 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences207–205 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences205–204 Mya — about 2 occurrences204–202 Mya — about 2 occurrences202–200 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences241.464 Mya205.7 Mya247.9 Mya200.5 Mya

15 occurrences of Trilophosauridae on record, most of them in the Late 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

15 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

6 formations

Tecovas — 33.61°N, 101.14°WTecovas — 35.38°N, 102.16°WTecovas — 33.42°N, 101.13°WWolfville — 45.22°N, 64.00°WWolfville — 45.40°N, 63.96°WChinle — 35.02°N, 109.78°WChinle — 34.95°N, 109.76°WKlettgau — 47.71°N, 8.45°ETrujillo — 32.75°N, 101.47°WGarita Creek — 35.28°N, 104.55°W

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The named rock units Trilophosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Trilophosauridae and its relatives

Late Triassic

Where Trilophosauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.

Found in the same rock

137 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Trilophosauridae, 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

12 references

Each of the 15 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 Trilophosauridae

Credit
Dr. Jeff Martz/NPS Petrified Forest from Petrified Forest, USA
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Trilophosauridae 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 itArchosauromorpha through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gregory 1945