Hesperogavialis

Hesperogavialis is an extinct genus of gryposuchine gavialid. Fossils have been found from Venezuela and Brazil that date back to the Middle to Late Miocene. Although Hesperogavialis is one of the best known gavialoids from South America, the posterior portion of the skull is still unknown, making any attempts at classification within the family somewhat more difficult than other gavialoids in which much of the skull is present. The genus possibly comprises three species. The type species, H. cruxenti, has been found in the Urumaco Formation in Venezuela. A second possible species, named H. bocquentini, has been described from the Solimões Formation in Acre, Brazil, and can be distinguished from H. cruxenti by the asymmetry seen in the anterior portion of the nasals and the small distance between alveoli. A third species can be recognized from the same locality in Acre, although a formal name has yet to be given to it.

No picture of Hesperogavialis was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Hesperogavialis, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
GavialidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At most 6.3 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.63 Mya and 5.333 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 6 of 6 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 6 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences10–10 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences10–9.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.9–9.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.7–9.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.5–9.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.2–9.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.0–8.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.7–8.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.5–8.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.2–8.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.0–7.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.8–7.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.5–7.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.3–7.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.0–6.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.8–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–6.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.0–5.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.8–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12.1 Mya4.8 Mya

6 occurrences of Hesperogavialis on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

6 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

2 formations

Solimoes — 8.18°S, 70.48°WSolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WUrumaco — 11.38°N, 69.93°WUrumaco — 11.18°N, 70.28°WUrumaco — 11.22°N, 70.25°W

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

Hesperogavialis and its relatives

Miocene

Where Hesperogavialis and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

115 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Hesperogavialis, 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

3 references

Each of the 6 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 content0

No picture of Hesperogavialis was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.

Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Hesperogavialis, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Hesperogavialis 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 itGavialidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bocquentin Villanueva and Buffetaut 1981