Variodens

Variodens is an extinct genus of trilophosaur. Fossils have been found from the Emborough Quarries in the Mendip Hills of Somerset, England. These fossils have been uncovered from a Late Triassic fissure fill within Carboniferous-age limestone. The type and only known species is V. inopinatus, named in 1957.

No picture of Variodens was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Variodens, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
TrilophosauridaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At most 4.3 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 205.7 Mya and 201.4 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Triassic — about 4 of 4 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 4 occurrences206–206 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences206–205 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences205–205 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences205–205 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences205–205 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences205–205 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences205–205 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences205–204 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences204–204 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences204–204 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences204–204 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences204–204 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences204–204 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences204–203 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences203–203 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences203–203 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences203–203 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences203–203 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences203–202 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences202–202 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences202–202 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences202–202 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences202–202 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences202–202 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences202–201 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences206.2 Mya200.9 Mya

4 occurrences of Variodens 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

4 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

1 formation

Klettgau — 47.71°N, 8.45°E

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The named rock units Variodens has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Variodens and its relatives

Late Triassic

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

Found in the same rock

48 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Variodens, 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

4 references

Each of the 4 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 content0

No picture of Variodens was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.

Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Variodens, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Variodens 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 itTrilophosauridae through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Robinson 1957