Homoeosaurus

Homoeosaurus is an extinct genus of rhynchocephalian reptile, known from the Late Jurassic-earliest Cretaceous of Europe, with specimens being reported from France, England and Germany. Several species have been described within the genus, based on varying proportions of the limb bones to the body length based on the presacral vertebrae. Specimen C.M.6438 of H. maximiliani from Germany has a total length of around 17 centimetres (6.7 in), with a skull length of about 1.7 centimetres (0.67 in). In comparison to other rhynchocephalians, the limbs are proportionally long. Recent studies have classified Homoeosaurus as a member of Neosphenodontia, with some studies including it as part of the clade Leptorhynchia, also including sapheosaurs, pleurosaurs, Kallimodon and Vadasaurus. Despite being found in aquatic deposits, it is suggested to have been terrestrial. Analysis of its limb bone morphology suggests that it was probably capable of climbing and may have climbed trees and/or rocky surfaces at least some of the time. It is thought to have been a carnivore/insectivore. One specimen was found as stomach contents of the fish Belonostomus.

Homoeosaurus

Daderot · CC0 · 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
HomoeosauridaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 6.1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 149.2 Mya to 143.1 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 152.21 Mya to 139.1 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 8 of 9 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 9 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous152–152 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences151–151 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences150–150 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences149–149 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences148–148 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences148–148 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences147–147 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences146–146 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences145–145 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences143–143 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences143–142 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences142–142 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences142–141 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences141–141 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences141–140 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences140–140 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences140–140 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences140–139 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149.2 Mya143.1 Mya152.7 Mya138.6 Mya

9 occurrences of Homoeosaurus on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. 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

9 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

3 formations

Solnhofen — 48.90°N, 11.19°ESolnhofen — 48.91°N, 11.14°ELulworth — 50.60°N, 1.97°WPainten — 49.02°N, 11.98°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Homoeosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Homoeosaurus and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Homoeosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

150 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Homoeosaurus, 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

4 references

Each of the 9 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 Homoeosaurus

Credit
Daderot
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Homoeosaurus 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 itHomoeosauridae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Meyer 1850