Clidastes

Clidastes is an extinct genus of marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. It is classified as part of the Mosasaurinae subfamily, alongside genera like Mosasaurus and Prognathodon. Clidastes is known from deposits ranging in age from the Coniacian to the early Campanian in the United States.

Clidastes

Greygirlbeast at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikidata/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
MosasaurinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Mosasauridae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota
Length
3 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 13 million years on record.

The record covers at least 85.7 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 34 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 34 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 33 of 34 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 34 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences142–139 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences137–134 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences134–131 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences131–129 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences129–126 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences126–123 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences121–118 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences118–115 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences113–110 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences110–107 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences102–99 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 1 occurrence89–86 Mya — about 2 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 6 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 5 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 5 occurrences78–75 Mya — about 5 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 5 occurrences72–70 Mya — about 1 occurrence70–67 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences85.7 Mya72.2 Mya145 Mya64 Mya

34 occurrences of Clidastes 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

34 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

14 formations

Mooreville Chalk — 32.91°N, 87.99°WMooreville Chalk — 32.60°N, 87.68°WMooreville Chalk — 32.76°N, 88.02°WMooreville Chalk — 32.96°N, 88.13°WMooreville Chalk — 32.85°N, 87.93°WNiobrara — 38.72°N, 100.45°WNiobrara — 43.04°N, 97.26°WNiobrara — 38.90°N, 100.10°WPierre Shale — 44.00°N, 103.25°WPierre Shale — 43.27°N, 103.85°WMarshalltown — 39.55°N, 75.65°WCerro del Pueblo — 25.50°N, 101.75°WAhlen — 51.75°N, 8.03°ERybushka — 51.35°N, 45.04°EGober Chalk — 32.81°N, 96.68°WEagle Ford — 31.53°N, 97.21°WBearpaw Shale — 47.64°N, 109.35°WTaylor Marl — 33.13°N, 96.47°WLagerdorf — 53.33°N, 9.59°EPen — 29.36°N, 103.52°WMuwaddar Chalk Marl — 31.56°N, 36.51°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Clidastes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Clidastes and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

216 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 34 sites for Clidastes, 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

25 references

Each of the 34 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. 13 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 Clidastes

Credit
Greygirlbeast at English Wikipedia
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Clidastes sp. · YPM:VP:YPM VP 003995

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

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 itMosasaurinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1868