Breviparopus

Breviparopus is the name given to an ichnogenus of dinosaur, having been made by an unknown genus of sauropod. As an ichnogenus, the taxon is represented by a 90-metre (295 ft) long series of fossil tracks, or ichnites, found in the spring of 1979 in the Atlas Mountains of present-day Morocco. At the time, this area would have been part of the splitting Gondwana supercontinent. The animal that produced the Breviparopus tracks is rumored to be one of the largest dinosaurs, though its exact size has been the subject of much debate.

No picture of Breviparopus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Breviparopus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ParabrontopodidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda

Time the record covers

At least 18 million years on record.

The record covers at least 170.9 Mya to 152.21 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 174.7 Mya to 149.2 Mya.

Early Jurassic — about 0 of 8 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 4 of 8 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 4 of 8 occurrencesLate Jurassic175–174 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences174–173 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences173–173 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences173–172 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences172–171 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences169–168 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences168–167 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences167–166 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences166–165 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences165–165 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences162–161 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences161–160 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences160–159 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences159–158 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences158–158 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences158–157 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences157–156 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences156–155 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences150–150 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences170.9 Mya152.21 Mya175.2 Mya148.7 Mya

8 occurrences of Breviparopus on record, most of them in the Middle Jurassic. 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

8 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

5 formations

Reuchenette — 47.25°N, 7.18°EReuchenette — 47.24°N, 7.48°EReuchenette — 47.41°N, 7.03°ESaltwick — 54.46°N, 0.55°WSaltwick — 54.42°N, 0.53°WIouaridène — 31.74°N, 6.90°WIch Timellaline/J’bel Bou Akrabène — 33.45°N, 4.33°WLealt Shale — 57.59°N, 6.14°W

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

Breviparopus and its relatives

Middle Jurassic

Where Breviparopus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

11 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Breviparopus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

6 references

Each of the 8 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 content0

No picture of Breviparopus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.

Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Breviparopus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Breviparopus 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 itParabrontopodidae through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dutuit and Ouazzou 1980