Askeptosaurus

Askeptosaurus is an extinct genus of askeptosauroid, a marine reptile from the extinct order Thalattosauria. Askeptosaurus is known from several well-preserved fossils found in Middle Triassic marine strata in what is now Italy and Switzerland.

Askeptosaurus

Neil Pezzoni · 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
Sits inside
AskeptosauridaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Thalattosauria

Time the record covers

At most 10 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 247 Mya and 237 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Triassic — about 0 of 3 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 3 of 3 occurrencesMiddle TriassicLate Triassic — about 0 of 3 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences247–246 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences246–246 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences246–246 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences246–245 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences245–245 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences245–245 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences245–244 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences244–244 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences244–243 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences243–243 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences243–243 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences243–242 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences242–242 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences242–242 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences242–241 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences241–241 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences241–241 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences241–240 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences240–240 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences240–239 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences239–239 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences239–239 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences239–238 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences238–238 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences238–238 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences238–237 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences237–237 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences247.5 Mya236.5 Mya

3 occurrences of Askeptosaurus on record, most of them in the Middle 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

3 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

2 formations

Besano — 45.90°N, 8.93°EGejiu — 24.98°N, 104.49°E

Loading coastlines…

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

Askeptosaurus and its relatives

Middle Triassic

Where Askeptosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Triassic.

Found in the same rock

37 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Askeptosaurus, 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

2 references

Each of the 3 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Askeptosaurus

Credit
Neil Pezzoni
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Askeptosaurus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itAskeptosauridae through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Nopcsa 1925