Choristodera

Choristodera is an extinct order of semiaquatic diapsid reptiles that ranged from the Middle Jurassic, or possibly Triassic, to the Miocene. Choristoderes are morphologically diverse, with the best known members being the crocodile-like neochoristoderes such as Champsosaurus. Other choristoderans had lizard-like or long necked morphologies. Choristoderes appear to have been confined to the Northern Hemisphere, having been found in North America, Asia, and Europe, and possibly also North Africa. Choristoderes are generally thought to be derived neodiapsids that are close relatives or members of Sauria.

Choristodera

Tiouraren (Y.-C. Tsai) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
choristoderePBDB
Sits inside
SauriaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 189 million years on record.

The record covers at least 201.4 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 205.7 Mya to 7.246 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 3 of 387 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 387 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 16 of 387 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 23 of 387 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 61 of 387 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 226 of 387 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 51 of 387 occurrencesEocene — about 3 of 387 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 387 occurrencesMiocene — about 3 of 387 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 387 occurrences210–203 Mya — about 2 occurrences203–196 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences168–162 Mya — about 16 occurrences162–155 Mya — about 2 occurrences155–148 Mya — about 12 occurrences148–141 Mya — about 13 occurrences141–134 Mya — about 5 occurrences134–127 Mya — about 4 occurrences127–120 Mya — about 22 occurrences120–113 Mya — about 18 occurrences113–106 Mya — about 4 occurrences106–100 Mya — about 5 occurrences100–93 Mya — about 3 occurrences93–86 Mya — about 2 occurrences86–79 Mya — about 42 occurrences79–72 Mya — about 64 occurrences72–65 Mya — about 120 occurrences65–58 Mya — about 31 occurrences58–51 Mya — about 16 occurrences51–45 Mya — about 1 occurrence31–24 Mya — about 1 occurrence24–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–10 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences10–3.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences201.4 Mya11.63 Mya210 Mya3 Mya

387 occurrences of Choristodera 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

387 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

77 formations

Hell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 47.68°N, 106.43°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 — 45.53°N, 101.63°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 — 47.52°N, 107.00°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 — 45.89°N, 104.55°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, 110.27°WDinosaur Park — 50.57°N, 111.76°WDinosaur Park — 50.56°N, 111.46°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WDinosaur Park — 50.51°N, 110.39°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, 111.50°WOldman — 50.70°N, 111.63°WLance — 43.35°N, 104.48°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 — 45.20°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WFort Union — 47.00°N, 103.87°WFort Union — 44.89°N, 108.98°WFort Union — 44.98°N, 109.02°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 47.60°N, 107.00°WFort Union — 44.89°N, 108.93°WMorrison — 41.89°N, 106.00°WMorrison — 41.99°N, 106.08°WMorrison — 44.46°N, 104.73°WMorrison — 44.18°N, 103.34°WMorrison — 40.47°N, 109.18°WMorrison — 41.88°N, 106.11°WMorrison — 44.06°N, 106.72°WIlek — 56.53°N, 91.81°EIlek — 55.97°N, 88.09°EIlek — 55.88°N, 88.32°EIlek — 55.90°N, 87.96°EIlek — 56.57°N, 91.85°EIlek — 56.64°N, 91.99°EForest Marble — 51.87°N, 1.27°WForest Marble — 50.71°N, 2.78°WForest Marble — 50.68°N, 2.66°WForest Marble — 51.73°N, 1.98°WForest Marble — 51.51°N, 2.16°WYixian — 41.13°N, 121.14°EYixian — 41.16°N, 119.31°EYixian — 41.37°N, 121.42°EYixian — 41.24°N, 119.40°EYixian — 41.53°N, 121.24°EYixian — 41.00°N, 119.40°EYixian — 40.97°N, 120.94°EHorseshoe 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°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.55°N, 112.88°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.54°N, 112.88°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°WJiufotang — 41.57°N, 120.16°EJiufotang — 41.40°N, 119.98°EJiufotang — 43.64°N, 120.43°EJiufotang — 41.51°N, 121.17°EJiufotang — 41.57°N, 120.45°EJiufotang — 42.27°N, 118.95°EKuwajima — 36.17°N, 136.63°EKhuren Dukh — 45.85°N, 108.40°ETwo Medicine — 48.48°N, 112.70°WTwo Medicine — 48.63°N, 113.75°WTwo Medicine — 48.94°N, 112.64°WTwo Medicine — 48.21°N, 112.50°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°WKsar Metlili — 32.70°N, 3.22°WDenver — 38.86°N, 104.61°WDenver — 38.91°N, 104.53°WNorth Horn — 39.18°N, 111.27°WNorth Horn — 39.10°N, 111.80°WNorth Horn — 39.00°N, 111.00°WRavenscrag — 49.30°N, 108.42°WRavenscrag — 49.50°N, 109.20°WRavenscrag — 49.06°N, 102.75°WSlope — 46.77°N, 101.29°WSlope — 46.70°N, 101.80°W

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The named rock units Choristodera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 53 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 21 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Choristodera and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

1,495 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 358 sites for Choristodera, and this reads 240 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

184 references

Each of the 387 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. 172 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 content2

Picture of Choristodera

Credit
Tiouraren (Y.-C. Tsai)
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itSauria through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

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