Heptasaurus

Mastodonsaurus is an extinct genus of temnospondyl amphibian from the Middle Triassic of Europe. It remains one of the largest amphibians known in the fossil record, and may have exceeded 6 meters in length. Mastodonsaurus belongs to a Triassic group of stereospondyl temnospondyls called Capitosauria, characterized by their large body size, large flattened skulls, and probably predatory aquatic lifestyles analogous to some later crocodilian reptiles.

Heptasaurus

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
MastodonsauridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At most 5.6 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 247 Mya and 241.464 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Early Triassic — about 0 of 1 occurrenceMiddle Triassic — about 1 of 1 occurrenceMiddle Triassic247–247 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences247–246 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences246–246 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences246–246 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences246–246 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences246–246 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences246–245 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences245–245 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences245–245 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences245–245 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences245–244 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences244–244 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences244–244 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences244–244 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences244–244 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences244–243 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences243–243 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences243–243 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences243–243 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences243–242 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences242–242 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences242–242 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences242–242 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences242–242 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences242–241 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences247.5 Mya241 Mya

1 occurrence of Heptasaurus 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

1 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

1 formation

Upper Buntsandstein — 48.72°N, 8.73°E

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The named rock units Heptasaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Heptasaurus and its relatives

Middle Triassic

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

Found in the same rock

1 taxon

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Heptasaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Heptasaurus

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

No 3D scan of Heptasaurus 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 itMastodonsauridae through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Säve-Söderbergh 1935