Cetiosaurus
Cetiosaurus, is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Period, living about 171 to 165 million years ago during the Bajocian and Bathonian ages in what is now Britain and probably France.

Paul Stainthorp from United Kingdom · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
- GravisauriaPBDB
- Diet
- herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda
- Length
- 18 mWikidata
Time the record covers
At least 42 million years on record.
The record covers at least 168.2 Mya to 125.77 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 174.7 Mya to 119.57 Mya.
30 occurrences of Cetiosaurus 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
30 occurrences- Middle Jurassic82%
- Late Jurassicunder 1%
- Early Cretaceous17%
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
12 formations
- El Mers Formation6
- Chipping Norton Limestone Formation · Great Oolite Group3
- Forest Marble Formation · Great Oolite Group3
- Wessex Formation · Wealden Group2
- Rutland Formation1
- Sharp's Hill Formation · Great Oolite Group1
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The named rock units Cetiosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Cetiosaurus and its relatives
Middle JurassicWhere Cetiosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.
Found in the same rock
137 taxa- Megalosaurus5 sites
- Lepidotes3 sites
- Pterosauria3 sites
- Steneosaurus3 sites
- Asteracanthus2 sites
- Caudata2 sites
- Crocodylia2 sites
- Cteniogenys2 sites
- Eupantotheria2 sites
- Goniopholis2 sites
- Lissodus2 sites
- Mammalia2 sites
- Marmorerpeton2 sites
- Ornithischia2 sites
- Reptilia2 sites
- Sphenodontia2 sites
- Stegosauria2 sites
- Stereognathus ooliticus2 sites
- Testudinata2 sites
- Theriosuchus2 sites
- Theropoda2 sites
- Thyreophora2 sites
- Tritylodontidae2 sites
- Wareolestes rex2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Cetiosaurus, 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
18 references- Étude paléontologique des vertébrés du Jurassique d'El Mers (Moyen Atlas) [Paleontological study of the Jurassic veretebrates from El Mers (Middle Atlas)]6
- Lydekker, 18884
- A saurischian dinosaur braincase from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) near Oxford, England: from the theropod Megalosaurus or the sauropod Cetiosaurus?2
- Middle Jurassic microvertebrate assemblages from the British Isles2
- The dinosaurs of Wiltshire2
- Phillips, 18712
- The sauropod dinosaur Cetiosaurus OWEN in the Bathonian (Middle Jurassic) of the Ardennes (NE France): insular, but not dwarf1
- A new Bathonian (Middle Jurassic) microvertebrate site, within the Chipping Norton Limestone Formation at Honsleasow Quarry, Gloucestershire1
- A Middle Jurassic mammal bed from Oxfordshire1
- Cetiosaurus oxoniensis, Phillips J. A middle Jurassic sauropod from Rutland, England1
- Swinton, 19701
- On a collection of reptilian bones from the Oolite of Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire1
Each of the 30 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. 6 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 Cetiosaurus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Paul Stainthorp from United Kingdom
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 2.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Cetiosaurus sp. · oumnh:pal:J.50308
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Credit
- Sammy the Citipati
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Cetiosaurus”
- 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 itGravisauria through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1841