Cryptoclididae

Cryptoclididae is a family of medium-sized plesiosaurs that existed from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. They had long necks, broad and short skulls and densely packed teeth. They fed on small soft-bodied preys such as small fish and crustaceans. The earliest members of the family appeared during the early Bajocian, and they represented the dominant group of long-necked plesiosaurs during the latter half of the Jurassic.

Cryptoclididae

Dmitry Bogdanov · CC BY 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
PlesiosauroideaPBDB
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 184.2 Mya to 113.2 Mya.

Early Jurassic — about 0 of 72 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 27 of 72 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 43 of 72 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 3 of 72 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous186–183 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences183–181 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences181–178 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences178–176 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences176–173 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences173–171 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences171–168 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences168–166 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences166–163 Mya — about 12 occurrences163–161 Mya — about 14 occurrences161–159 Mya — about 6 occurrences159–156 Mya — about 6 occurrences156–154 Mya — about 4 occurrences154–151 Mya — about 4 occurrences151–149 Mya — about 5 occurrences149–146 Mya — about 6 occurrences146–144 Mya — about 7 occurrences144–141 Mya — about 2 occurrences141–139 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences139–136 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences134–131 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences131–129 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences129–127 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences127–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences117–114 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences114–112 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences165.3 Mya119.57 Mya186 Mya112 Mya

72 occurrences of Cryptoclididae 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

72 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

13 formations

Oxford Clay — 52.54°N, 0.25°WOxford Clay — 50.62°N, 2.50°WOxford Clay — 52.55°N, 0.25°WOxford Clay — 51.83°N, 0.70°WOxford Clay — 51.75°N, 1.18°WOxford Clay — 52.17°N, 0.49°WOxford Clay — 52.40°N, 0.24°WOxford Clay — 51.78°N, 1.29°WOxford Clay — 51.50°N, 2.06°WOxford Clay — 52.56°N, 0.29°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.58°N, 2.07°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.75°N, 1.18°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 — 50.57°N, 2.45°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.45°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.54°N, 2.42°WSundance — 44.57°N, 108.05°WSundance — 43.55°N, 107.77°WSundance — 44.60°N, 107.76°WSundance — 43.41°N, 106.75°WSundance — 44.84°N, 111.73°WAgardhfjellet — 78.34°N, 15.92°EAgardhfjellet — 78.08°N, 18.83°EAgardhfjellet — 78.34°N, 15.83°EAgardhfjellet — 78.34°N, 16.05°EPortland Stone — 51.55°N, 1.79°WPortland Stone — 50.57°N, 2.45°WJagua — 22.62°N, 83.71°WJagua — 22.38°N, 83.50°WLajas — 39.25°S, 70.30°WFaringdon Sand — 51.65°N, 1.58°WMont-Lambert — 50.77°N, 1.63°EKatrol — 23.20°N, 69.76°EArgiles de Montaubert — 50.73°N, 1.84°ELealt Shale — 56.91°N, 6.11°WNerinea limestone — 49.98°N, 18.27°E

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The named rock units Cryptoclididae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cryptoclididae and its relatives

Late Jurassic

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

Found in the same rock

175 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 54 sites for Cryptoclididae, 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

44 references

Each of the 72 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. 31 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 Cryptoclididae

Credit
Dmitry Bogdanov
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cryptoclididae 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 itPlesiosauroidea through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Williston 1925