Andrias

Andrias is a genus of giant salamanders that includes the largest extant amphibians in the world. These include species such as Andrias japonicus which can reach a length of 1.44 metres, and Andrias sligoi which can reach a length of 1.80 metres.

Andrias

Samuel T. Turvey, Melissa M. Marr, Ian Barnes , Selina Brace, Benjamin Tapley, Robert W. Murphy, Ermi Zhao, Andrew A.… · CC BY 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
Also called
giant salamanderPBDB
Sits inside
CryptobranchidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 19 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Oligocene — about 2 of 20 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 17 of 20 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 20 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 20 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences11–9.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences9.8–8.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences8.9–8.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.1–7.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.8–2.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.9–2.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences23.04 Mya3.6 Mya27.8 Mya2.1 Mya

20 occurrences of Andrias on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

20 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

9 formations

Runningwater — 42.80°N, 103.10°WRunningwater — 42.07°N, 103.08°WBrackwater Molasse — 48.35°N, 9.86°EBrackwater Molasse — 48.48°N, 10.10°EValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WPawnee Creek — 40.90°N, 103.28°WSnake Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WVille — 50.90°N, 6.45°EWood Mountain — 49.18°N, 105.95°WMost — 50.57°N, 13.75°EReuver clay — 50.90°N, 6.45°E

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The named rock units Andrias has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Andrias and its relatives

Miocene

Where Andrias and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

646 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 20 sites for Andrias, 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

11 references

Each of the 20 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 Andrias

Credit
Samuel T. Turvey, Melissa M. Marr, Ian Barnes , Selina Brace, Benjamin Tapley, Robert W. Murphy, Ermi Zhao, Andrew A.…
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Andrias 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 itCryptobranchidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Tschudi 1837