Halisaurus

Halisaurus is an extinct genus of mosasaur named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1869. The holotype, consisting of an angular and a basicranium fragment discovered near Hornerstown, New Jersey, already revealed a relatively unique combination of features and prompted a new genus to be described. Its name is a portmanteau of the Ancient Greek ἅλς and σαῦρος. It was renamed by Marsh to Baptosaurus in 1870, since he believed the name to already be preoccupied by the fish Halosaurus. According to modern rules, a difference of a letter is enough and the substitute name is unneeded, making "Baptosaurus" a junior synonym.

Halisaurus

Greg Goebel from Loveland CO, USA · CC BY-SA 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
HalisauriniPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Mosasauridae
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Mosasauridae
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 25 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 85.7 Mya and 61.66 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 30 of 30 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 30 occurrencesPaleocene86–85 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 1 occurrence72–71 Mya — about 3 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 3 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 3 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 3 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 3 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 3 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 3 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences65–64 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences64–64 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences64–63 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences63–62 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences62–61 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences86.2 Mya61.2 Mya

30 occurrences of Halisaurus 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

30 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

19 formations

Navesink — 39.76°N, 75.13°WNavesink — 39.95°N, 74.79°WNavesink — 40.31°N, 74.22°WSevern — 38.91°N, 76.85°WSevern — 38.77°N, 76.98°WMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WBlufftown — 32.16°N, 85.03°WTar Heel — 34.57°N, 78.50°WVivian — 10.00°S, 74.91°WCouche III — 32.88°N, 6.63°WPhosphorite Unit — 32.02°N, 36.03°EMocuio — 14.27°S, 12.38°EPhosphates — 32.88°N, 6.63°WHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°WMount Laurel — 39.56°N, 75.63°WMerchantville — 39.54°N, 75.73°WDukamaje — 15.37°N, 5.83°EMoreno — 36.46°N, 120.68°WJagüel — 39.85°S, 66.68°WQuiriquina — 36.59°S, 72.98°WDakhla Shale — 25.50°N, 29.17°EPedee — 33.91°N, 78.27°W

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The named rock units Halisaurus 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.

Halisaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

363 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 30 sites for Halisaurus, 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

22 references

Each of the 30 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. 10 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 Halisaurus

Credit
Greg Goebel from Loveland CO, USA
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itHalisaurini through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Marsh 1869