Colymbosaurus

Colymbosaurus is a genus of cryptoclidid plesiosaur from the Middle-Late Jurassic (Callovian-Tithonian) of the UK and Svalbard, Norway. There are two currently recognized species, C. megadeirus and C. svalbardensis.

Colymbosaurus

the paleobear from Lontananza, Loreto, Peru · CC BY 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
CryptoclididaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Environment
marinePBDB, for Plesiosauria

Time the record covers

At least 45 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 119.57 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 113.2 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 2 of 18 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 15 of 18 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 18 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous169–167 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences167–165 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences165–164 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences164–162 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences162–160 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences160–158 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences158–156 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences156–154 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences154–152 Mya — about 2 occurrences152–150 Mya — about 1 occurrence150–148 Mya — about 2 occurrences148–146 Mya — about 3 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 3 occurrences145–143 Mya — about 3 occurrences120–118 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences118–116 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences116–114 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences114–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences165.3 Mya119.57 Mya169 Mya112 Mya

18 occurrences of Colymbosaurus on record, most of them in the Late 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

18 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

7 formations

Kimmeridge Clay — 51.75°N, 1.18°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.13°WKimmeridge Clay — 52.60°N, 0.38°EKimmeridge Clay — 51.75°N, 1.20°WKimmeridge Clay — 52.40°N, 0.28°EKimmeridge Clay — 52.36°N, 0.15°EKimmeridge Clay — 50.54°N, 2.42°WPortland Stone — 51.55°N, 1.79°WPortland Stone — 50.57°N, 2.45°WAgardhfjellet — 78.34°N, 15.92°EAgardhfjellet — 78.08°N, 18.83°EFaringdon Sand — 51.65°N, 1.58°WMont-Lambert — 50.77°N, 1.63°EOxford Clay — 51.50°N, 2.06°WLealt Shale — 56.91°N, 6.11°W

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The named rock units Colymbosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Colymbosaurus and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Colymbosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

61 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Colymbosaurus, 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

14 references

Each of the 18 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. 2 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 Colymbosaurus

Credit
the paleobear from Lontananza, Loreto, Peru
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Colymbosaurus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itCryptoclididae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Seeley 1874