Brachychampsa

Brachychampsa is an extinct genus of alligatorid, possibly a basal caiman. Specimens have been reported from New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North and South Dakota, New Jersey, and Saskatchewan, though only those from Montana, Utah, and New Mexico are based on material sufficient to justify the referral. Some specimens have been reported from the Campanian-aged deposits of Central Asia, although the species status is indeterminate for these fossils. The genus first appeared during the late Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous and became extinct during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Cretaceous. Brachychampsa is distinguished by an enlarged fifth maxillary tooth in the upper jaw.

Brachychampsa

Daderot · CC0 · 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
BrachychampsiniPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 89.8 Mya to 66 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 93.9 Mya to 63.4 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 130 of 131 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 131 occurrencesPaleocene95–93 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences91–90 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 1 occurrence83–82 Mya — about 2 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 2 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 2 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 2 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 2 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 2 occurrences77–75 Mya — about 2 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 2 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 2 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 2 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 17 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 18 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 18 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 18 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 18 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 18 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences65–64 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences64–63 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences89.8 Mya66 Mya94.5 Mya62.8 Mya

131 occurrences of Brachychampsa on record, most of them in the Late 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

131 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

19 formations

Hell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 45.98°N, 103.75°WHell Creek — 46.38°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 46.18°N, 103.84°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.02°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.94°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 47.68°N, 106.43°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.62°N, 107.32°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.98°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.58°N, 106.30°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.25°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 106.43°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 46.90°N, 101.50°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 47.95°N, 105.63°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.50°WHell Creek — 45.66°N, 105.08°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WHell Creek — 45.64°N, 103.49°WHell Creek — 45.53°N, 101.63°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WLance — 43.30°N, 104.37°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WLance — 43.18°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.00°N, 104.50°WLance — 43.27°N, 104.62°WLance — 43.27°N, 104.65°WLance — 43.28°N, 104.53°WLance — 45.67°N, 101.48°WLance — 43.49°N, 104.46°WFerris — 41.94°N, 106.88°WFerris — 41.80°N, 107.00°WFerris — 41.96°N, 106.89°WAguja — 29.10°N, 103.17°WFruitland — 36.49°N, 108.49°WFruitland — 36.27°N, 108.26°WKirtland — 36.27°N, 108.17°WKirtland — 36.34°N, 108.08°WEl Gallo — 30.05°N, 115.76°WMenefee — 35.70°N, 107.20°WMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WLaramie — 40.39°N, 104.49°WMesaverde — 42.85°N, 107.28°WJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WJudith River — 49.10°N, 109.50°WTullock — 47.80°N, 106.10°WDabrazhin — 41.75°N, 68.52°EMedicine Bow — 41.80°N, 107.00°WMount Laurel — 40.30°N, 74.30°WWilliams Fork — 40.03°N, 108.85°WKaiparowits — 37.30°N, 112.43°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Brachychampsa has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Brachychampsa and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Brachychampsa and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

552 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 128 sites for Brachychampsa, 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

37 references

Each of the 131 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. 25 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 content3

Picture of Brachychampsa

Credit
Daderot
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Brachychampsa sp. · UCMP:V:159000

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itBrachychampsini through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gilmore 1911