Gavialidae

Gavialidae is a family of large semiaquatic crocodilians with elongated, narrow snouts. Gavialidae consists of two living species, the gharial and the false gharial, both occurring in Asia. Many extinct members are known from a broader range, including the recently extinct Hanyusuchus. Gavialids are generally regarded as lacking the jaw strength to capture the large mammalian prey favoured by crocodiles and alligators of similar size so their thin snout is best used to catch fish, however the false gharial has been found to have a generalist diet with mature adults preying upon larger vertebrates, such as ungulates.

Gavialidae

“Jonathan Zander ( Digon3 )” · 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
GavialoideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 165 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 281 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 281 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 2 of 281 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 45 of 281 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 14 of 281 occurrencesEocene — about 20 of 281 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 7 of 281 occurrencesMiocene — about 139 of 281 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 22 of 281 occurrencesPleistocene — about 25 of 281 occurrences172–166 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences166–160 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences149–143 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences143–137 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences137–132 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences132–126 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences126–120 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences120–114 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences114–109 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences109–103 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences103–97 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences97–92 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences92–86 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences86–80 Mya — about 2 occurrences80–74 Mya — about 3 occurrences74–69 Mya — about 22 occurrences69–63 Mya — about 21 occurrences63–57 Mya — about 6 occurrences57–51 Mya — about 4 occurrences51–46 Mya — about 3 occurrences46–40 Mya — about 5 occurrences40–34 Mya — about 10 occurrences34–29 Mya — about 4 occurrences29–23 Mya — about 4 occurrences23–17 Mya — about 25 occurrences17–11 Mya — about 45 occurrences11–5.7 Mya — about 65 occurrences5.7–0 Mya — about 57 occurrences165.3 Mya11.7 ka172 Mya0 Mya

281 occurrences of Gavialidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

281 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

92 formations

Hell Creek — 45.98°N, 103.75°WHell Creek — 46.38°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.00°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WPisco — 15.58°S, 74.72°WPisco — 15.50°S, 74.80°WPisco — 15.55°S, 74.80°WPisco — 15.67°S, 74.54°WPisco — 14.52°S, 75.71°WPisco — 14.45°S, 75.75°WPisco — 15.49°S, 74.73°WPisco — 14.38°S, 75.90°WUrumaco — 11.38°N, 69.93°WUrumaco — 11.22°N, 70.24°WUrumaco — 11.25°N, 70.27°WPebas — 3.99°S, 73.17°WPebas — 4.01°S, 73.37°WPebas — 4.30°S, 73.46°WPebas — 7.36°S, 74.96°WPebas — 4.01°S, 73.03°WPebas — 3.74°S, 73.25°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WHornerstown — 40.12°N, 74.55°WHornerstown — 40.15°N, 74.72°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.16°WHornerstown — 40.30°N, 74.10°WHornerstown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WSolimoes — 8.18°S, 70.48°WSolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WSolimoes — 10.94°S, 69.34°WCastillo — 10.37°N, 70.05°WCastillo — 10.57°N, 69.70°WPinjor — 30.77°N, 76.86°EPinjor — 30.33°N, 77.11°EPinjor — 28.82°N, 79.09°EVincentown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WVincentown — 39.93°N, 74.75°WVincentown — 39.88°N, 75.09°WVincentown — 39.86°N, 74.82°WNkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°ESevern — 38.91°N, 76.85°WSevern — 38.96°N, 76.71°WVillavieja — 3.24°N, 75.18°WVillavieja — 3.32°N, 75.13°WVillavieja — 3.30°N, 75.17°WPinjor — 30.73°N, 76.78°EIrrawaddy — 21.28°N, 95.51°EIrrawaddy — 20.13°N, 94.89°EIrrawaddy — 20.17°N, 94.92°EDhok Pathan — 33.03°N, 72.47°EDhok Pathan — 32.83°N, 73.30°EDhok Pathan — 32.33°N, 73.88°EMoghara — 30.38°N, 28.82°EMoghara — 30.30°N, 30.00°ERipley — 33.43°N, 88.88°WRipley — 35.62°N, 88.12°WRipley — 35.38°N, 88.40°WSolimões — 10.13°S, 67.81°WSolimões — 9.08°S, 68.67°WSolimões — 7.84°S, 69.15°WMaradah — 28.00°N, 20.50°ECaujarao — 11.50°N, 69.52°WWarwire — 1.50°N, 31.00°EIdam Unit — 25.71°N, 18.18°ETurkana Grit — 2.33°N, 35.83°EJebel Qatrani — 29.64°N, 30.58°E

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The named rock units Gavialidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 68 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 73 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Gavialidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Gavialidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

2,257 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 239 sites for Gavialidae, 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

139 references

Each of the 281 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. 127 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 Gavialidae

Credit
“Jonathan Zander ( Digon3 )”
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Gavialidae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itGavialoidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Adams 1854)