Champsosaurus

Champsosaurus is an extinct genus of crocodile-like choristodere reptile, known from the Late Cretaceous and early Paleogene periods of North America and Europe (Campanian–Paleocene). The name Champsosaurus is thought to come from champsai (χαμψαι), said in an Ancient Greek source to be an Egyptian word for "crocodiles", and sauros, (σαύρος) Greek for "lizard". The morphology of Champsosaurus resembles that of gharials, with a long, elongated snout. It was native to freshwater environments where it likely preyed on fish, similar to living gharials.

Champsosaurus

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
Sits inside
NeochoristoderaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB
Life habit
aquaticPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
freshwaterPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 36 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 57.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 56 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 232 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 197 of 232 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 35 of 232 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 232 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences97–95 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 6 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 12 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 12 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 12 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 12 occurrences77–75 Mya — about 12 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 12 occurrences74–72 Mya — about 13 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 27 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 27 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 27 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 25 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 7 occurrences64–63 Mya — about 6 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 2 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 4 occurrences60–58 Mya — about 5 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 7 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 3 occurrences93.9 Mya57.5 Mya101.4 Mya55.1 Mya

232 occurrences of Champsosaurus 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

232 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

28 formations

Hell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 46.03°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 46.18°N, 103.84°WHell Creek — 46.14°N, 103.80°WHell Creek — 46.38°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.00°WHell Creek — 46.36°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.94°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.62°N, 107.32°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.25°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 106.27°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.88°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.23°WHell Creek — 46.90°N, 101.50°WHell Creek — 46.09°N, 100.63°WHell Creek — 45.73°N, 104.89°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°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 — 46.33°N, 104.01°WHell Creek — 47.34°N, 108.22°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WDinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.82°N, 111.57°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.48°WDinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.49°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.40°WDinosaur Park — 50.78°N, 111.33°WDinosaur Park — 50.73°N, 111.57°WDinosaur Park — 49.96°N, 110.34°WDinosaur Park — 50.57°N, 111.76°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WOldman — 50.76°N, 111.62°WOldman — 50.75°N, 111.51°WOldman — 49.10°N, 110.94°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.84°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.68°WOldman — 49.16°N, 110.72°WOldman — 50.83°N, 111.32°WOldman — 50.70°N, 111.63°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 — 45.75°N, 101.20°WLance — 45.34°N, 103.72°WLance — 45.39°N, 103.70°WLance — 45.60°N, 103.63°WLance — 45.71°N, 102.05°WLance — 45.93°N, 103.92°WFort Union — 44.67°N, 108.44°WFort Union — 44.67°N, 108.46°WFort Union — 43.85°N, 108.35°WFort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WFort Union — 47.00°N, 103.87°WFort Union — 45.20°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 44.89°N, 108.93°WFrenchman — 49.50°N, 109.10°WFrenchman — 49.04°N, 106.60°WFrenchman — 49.40°N, 107.40°WFrenchman — 49.52°N, 108.82°WFrenchman — 49.30°N, 108.40°WFerris — 41.94°N, 106.88°WHorseshoe Canyon — 52.27°N, 113.80°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.40°N, 112.71°WHorseshoe Canyon — 52.00°N, 112.88°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.94°N, 112.96°WBullion Creek — 47.05°N, 103.66°WForemost — 50.07°N, 111.14°WForemost — 49.13°N, 110.87°WForemost — 49.60°N, 111.00°WJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WJudith River — 46.10°N, 109.10°WJudith River — 46.40°N, 109.66°WJudith River — 43.64°N, 109.35°WDenver — 38.86°N, 104.61°WDenver — 38.91°N, 104.53°WTwo Medicine — 48.48°N, 112.70°WTwo Medicine — 48.94°N, 112.64°WTwo Medicine — 48.21°N, 112.50°WSt. Mary River — 49.92°N, 112.99°WNorth Horn — 39.10°N, 111.80°WNorth Horn — 39.00°N, 111.00°WJudith River — 49.10°N, 109.50°WJudith River — 50.50°N, 107.83°WTullock — 47.80°N, 106.10°WTullock — 47.60°N, 107.00°WWapiti — 55.08°N, 119.53°WWapiti — 55.07°N, 118.69°WLaramie — 40.39°N, 104.49°WKanguk — 79.39°N, 92.18°WScollard — 52.33°N, 113.12°WMesaverde — 42.85°N, 107.28°WPaskapoo — 52.35°N, 113.77°WBlack Peaks — 29.36°N, 103.52°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Champsosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Champsosaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

1,046 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 225 sites for Champsosaurus, 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

79 references

Each of the 232 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. 67 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 Champsosaurus

Credit
D. Gordon E. Robertson
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
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
Champsosaurus lindoei · cmn:fv:8920

3D model

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

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