Bernissartiidae

Bernissartiidae is an extinct family of neosuchian crocodyliformes known from the Early Cretaceous. Bernissartiid fossils have been reported from Belgium, France, Spain, England, Tunisia and the United States. It currently contains two genera, Bernissartia from the Barremian aged Sainte-Barbe Clays of Belgium and Koumpiodontosuchus from the equivalently aged Wessex Formation in southern England. Members of this family display adaptations for a durophagous lifestyle, especially the heterodont dentition of Koumpiodontosuchus. Indeterminate remains have been reported from the Oum ed Diab Member of Tunisia, the Cloverly Formation and Arundel Clay of the United States, and the La Huérguina Formation, Blesa Formation, Villanueva de Huerva Formation, El Castellar Formation, Camarillas Formation and El Collado Formation of Spain, and the Angeac-Charente bonebed in France.

Bernissartiidae

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikidata/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
NeosuchiaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pseudosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 36 million years on record.

The record covers at least 149.2 Mya to 113.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 152.21 Mya to 100.5 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 3 of 23 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 20 of 23 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 23 occurrences153–151 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 1 occurrence150–148 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences148–146 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences146–144 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences144–142 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences142–141 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences141–139 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences137–135 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences135–134 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences134–132 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences132–130 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences130–128 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences128–126 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences126–125 Mya — about 3 occurrences125–123 Mya — about 4 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 3 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences117–116 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences116–114 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences114–112 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences112–110 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences110–108 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences108–107 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences103–101 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences101–99 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences149.2 Mya113.2 Mya153 Mya99 Mya

23 occurrences of Bernissartiidae 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

23 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

14 formations

Cloverly — 44.65°N, 107.88°WCloverly — 44.51°N, 107.90°WCloverly — 44.50°N, 107.82°WCloverly — 44.44°N, 109.06°WLourinhã — 39.22°N, 9.34°WLa Huérguina — 40.12°N, 1.97°WLa Huérguina — 40.06°N, 1.88°WEl Collado — 40.59°N, 2.07°WBlesa — 40.95°N, 0.77°WVillanueva de Huerva — 41.34°N, 1.04°WEl Castellar — 40.58°N, 0.69°WCamarillas — 40.66°N, 0.86°WWadhurst Clay — 50.86°N, 0.44°EAïn el Guettar — 32.66°N, 10.21°EWessex — 50.67°N, 1.13°WHolly Creek — 34.09°N, 93.88°WMirambel — 40.71°N, 0.42°WArundel Clay — 39.07°N, 76.87°W

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The named rock units Bernissartiidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Bernissartiidae and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Bernissartiidae and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

401 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 23 sites for Bernissartiidae, 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

17 references

Each of the 23 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. 5 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 Bernissartiidae

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Bernissartiidae 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 itNeosuchia through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Dollo 1883)