Cyamodus

Cyamodus is a genus of placodonts known from several species described from Middle-Late Triassic of Europe and China. The genus was described by Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer in 1863, based on specimens found in Germany. Like some other placodonts, Cyamodus has an armoured carapace composed of irregular hexagonal plates, with the mouth containing a small number of large, rounded teeth that were likely involved in crushing hard shelled organisms (durophagy).

Cyamodus

Ghedoghedo · 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
CyamodontidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Sauropterygia

Time the record covers

At least 7.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 241.464 Mya to 233.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 247 Mya to 227.3 Mya.

Early Triassic — about 0 of 18 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 16 of 18 occurrencesMiddle TriassicLate Triassic — about 2 of 18 occurrencesLate Triassic248–247 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences247–246 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences246–245 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences245–245 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences245–244 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences244–243 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences243–243 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences243–242 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences242–241 Mya — about 1 occurrence241–241 Mya — about 2 occurrences241–240 Mya — about 2 occurrences240–239 Mya — about 2 occurrences239–239 Mya — about 2 occurrences239–238 Mya — about 2 occurrences238–237 Mya — about 2 occurrences237–236 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences236–236 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences236–235 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences235–234 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences234–234 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences234–233 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences233–232 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences232–232 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences232–231 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences231–230 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences230–230 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences230–229 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences229–228 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences228–227 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences227–227 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences241.464 Mya233.6 Mya247.5 Mya226.8 Mya

18 occurrences of Cyamodus on record, most of them in the Middle Triassic. 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

5 formations

Meissner — 49.99°N, 11.64°EBesano — 45.91°N, 8.94°ETemplomhegy Dolomite — 45.88°N, 18.45°EBesano — 45.89°N, 8.89°EXiaowa — 25.90°N, 105.42°E

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The named rock units Cyamodus 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.

Cyamodus and its relatives

Middle Triassic

Where Cyamodus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Triassic.

Found in the same rock

70 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Cyamodus, 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

11 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. 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 Cyamodus

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cyamodus 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 itCyamodontidae through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. von Meyer 1863