Tylosaurinae

The Tylosaurinae are a subfamily of mosasaurs, a diverse group of Late Cretaceous marine squamates. Members of the subfamily are informally and collectively known as "tylosaurines" and have been recovered from every continent except for South America. The subfamily includes the genera Tylosaurus, Taniwhasaurus, and Kaikaifilu, although some scientists argue that only Tylosaurus and Taniwhasaurus should be included.

Tylosaurinae

Uncredited · 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
MosasauridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Mosasauridae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 17 million years on record.

The record covers at least 89.8 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 108 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 108 of 108 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 108 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 1 occurrence93–92 Mya — about 1 occurrence92–90 Mya — about 1 occurrence90–89 Mya — about 4 occurrences89–88 Mya — about 7 occurrences88–87 Mya — about 7 occurrences87–86 Mya — about 7 occurrences86–84 Mya — about 6 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 6 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 6 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 6 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 6 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 6 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 6 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 6 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 6 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 6 occurrences74–72 Mya — about 6 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 4 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 3 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 3 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 3 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 3 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 1 occurrence89.8 Mya72.2 Mya101.2 Mya65.3 Mya

108 occurrences of Tylosaurinae 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

108 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

37 formations

Niobrara — 38.95°N, 100.48°WNiobrara — 38.88°N, 99.33°WNiobrara — 38.48°N, 100.90°WNiobrara — 38.00°N, 100.00°WNiobrara — 39.02°N, 99.45°WNiobrara — 37.47°N, 104.62°WNiobrara — 39.23°N, 99.30°WNiobrara — 38.90°N, 100.10°WNiobrara — 39.35°N, 99.83°WNiobrara — 39.00°N, 99.50°WNiobrara — 38.90°N, 101.10°WNiobrara — 38.92°N, 100.33°WNiobrara — 38.88°N, 97.37°WNiobrara — 38.84°N, 100.96°WNiobrara — 38.80°N, 100.19°WSnow Hill Island — 63.92°S, 57.85°WSnow Hill Island — 63.88°S, 57.59°WConway — 42.57°S, 173.52°EPierre Shale — 49.35°N, 98.34°WPierre Shale — 49.25°N, 98.20°WPierre Shale — 44.00°N, 103.25°WPierre Shale — 38.88°N, 101.59°WPierre Shale — 43.20°N, 99.18°WBoquillas — 29.32°N, 103.62°WTar Heel — 34.57°N, 78.50°WTar Heel — 34.61°N, 78.60°WItombe — 8.29°S, 13.35°EOpoka — 51.10°N, 21.80°EOpoka — 51.33°N, 21.97°ELópez de Bertodano — 64.28°S, 56.81°WLópez de Bertodano — 64.29°S, 56.74°WMerchantville — 39.54°N, 75.73°WMesaverde — 44.10°N, 107.76°WConway Siltstone — 42.55°S, 173.50°EKopinge Sandstone — 55.47°N, 13.94°ESprinkle — 32.25°N, 96.51°WPrairie Bluff Chalk — 32.92°N, 88.08°WTaylor Marl — 33.13°N, 96.47°WTelegraph Creek — 45.61°N, 107.58°WHaborogawa — 44.28°N, 141.85°EKashima — 43.21°N, 142.45°EGlauconie de Lonzée — 50.55°N, 4.73°EVitoria — 42.03°N, 2.57°WCraie de Meudon — 48.82°N, 2.23°EVaals — 50.78°N, 6.08°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Tylosaurinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 32 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Tylosaurinae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

672 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 98 sites for Tylosaurinae, 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

62 references

Each of the 108 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. 50 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 Tylosaurinae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Tylosaurinae 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 itMosasauridae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wiliston 1895