Acostasaurus pavachoquensis

Acostasaurus is an extinct genus of possibly Thalassophonean pliosaurid known from the Barremian of the Paja Formation, Colombia. The type specimen, UNDG R-1000, is known from a near complete skull, and postcranial elements including a complete hindlimb and various vertebrae. The specimen has an estimated size of over 4 metres (13 ft) in length.

Acostasaurus pavachoquensis

Eotyrannu5 · 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
AcostasaurusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pliosauroidea
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Pliosauroidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Pliosauroidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pliosauroidea

Time the record covers

At most 4.4 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 125.77 Mya and 121.4 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 1 occurrenceEarly Cretaceous126–126 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences126–126 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences126–125 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences125–125 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences125–125 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences125–125 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences125–125 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences125–124 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences124–124 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences124–124 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences124–124 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences124–124 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences124–124 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences124–123 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences123–123 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences123–123 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences123–123 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences123–123 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences123–123 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences123–122 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences122–122 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences122–122 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences122–122 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences122–122 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences122–121 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences121–121 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences126.3 Mya120.9 Mya

1 occurrence of Acostasaurus pavachoquensis on record, most of them in the Early 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

1 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

Paja — 5.60°N, 73.63°W

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

Acostasaurus pavachoquensis and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Acostasaurus pavachoquensis and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

No other named taxon is catalogued from that site.

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Acostasaurus pavachoquensis, and this reads all of them.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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 Acostasaurus pavachoquensis

Credit
Eotyrannu5
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Acostasaurus pavachoquensis 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 itAcostasaurus through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gomez-Perez and Noe 2011