Champsosauridae

Neochoristodera is a lineage of specialised crocodile-like fully aquatic choristodere reptiles. Noted for their long jaws and large size, these animals were predominant across the Northern Hemisphere, occurring in freshwater and coastal environments across the Cretaceous and early Cenozoic.

Champsosauridae

D. Gordon E. Robertson · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
Also called
champsosaurPBDB
Sits inside
NeochoristoderaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 66 million years on record.

The record covers at least 125.77 Mya to 59.24 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 137.05 Mya to 56 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 4 of 30 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 20 of 30 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 6 of 30 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 30 occurrences139–136 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences136–133 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences133–130 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences130–127 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences125–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–119 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences119–116 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences116–113 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences113–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–108 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences102–99 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences91–88 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences88–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 2 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 2 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 2 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 3 occurrences71–68 Mya — about 4 occurrences68–66 Mya — about 4 occurrences66–63 Mya — about 3 occurrences63–60 Mya — about 1 occurrence60–57 Mya — about 1 occurrence57–54 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences125.77 Mya59.24 Mya139 Mya54 Mya

30 occurrences of Champsosauridae 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

30 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

16 formations

Hell Creek — 47.68°N, 106.43°WHell Creek — 47.62°N, 107.32°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.88°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 45.89°N, 104.55°WDinosaur Park — 50.76°N, 111.44°WDinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.46°WDinosaur Park — 50.56°N, 111.46°WDinosaur Park — 50.51°N, 110.39°WPaskapoo — 53.23°N, 114.70°WPaskapoo — 51.08°N, 114.16°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.55°N, 112.88°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.54°N, 112.88°WNorth Horn — 39.18°N, 111.27°WLance — 43.35°N, 104.48°WRavenscrag — 49.30°N, 108.42°WTwo Medicine — 48.63°N, 113.75°WBayangobi — 41.17°N, 106.08°EEjinhoro — 39.88°N, 108.34°ELuohandong — 38.92°N, 108.08°EGrünbach — 47.82°N, 16.24°EKhuren Dukh — 45.83°N, 108.45°EFort Union — 47.60°N, 107.00°WWillow Creek — 50.71°N, 113.92°WWapiti — 55.26°N, 118.51°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Champsosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Champsosauridae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

270 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 30 sites for Champsosauridae, 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

24 references

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. 12 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 Champsosauridae

Credit
D. Gordon E. Robertson
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Champsosauridae 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 itNeochoristodera through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1876