Ichthyosauridae

Ichthyosauridae is an extinct family of thunnosaur ichthyosaurs from the latest Triassic and Early Jurassic of Europe, and possibly also from the middle Early Cretaceous of Iraq. Named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, in 1841, it is usually thought to contain a single genus, Ichthyosaurus, which is known from several species from the Early Jurassic. In 2013, Fischer et al. named and described Malawania anachronus from the middle Early Cretaceous of Iraq. It was found to share several synapomorphies with the type species of this family, Ichthyosaurus communis, and a large phylogenetic analysis recovered these species as sister taxa. Despite its geologically younger age, M. anachronus was also assigned to Ichthyosauridae.

Ichthyosauridae

Ballista at English Wikipedia · 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
ThunnosauriaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Ichthyopterygia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Environment
marinePBDB, for Ichthyosauria

Time the record covers

At least 140 million years on record.

The record covers at least 247 Mya to 106.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 248.6 Mya to 93.9 Mya.

Early Triassic — about 1 of 106 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 106 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 18 of 106 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 57 of 106 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 8 of 106 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 16 of 106 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 6 of 106 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 106 occurrences252–246 Mya — about 1 occurrence241–236 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences236–230 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences230–225 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences225–220 Mya — about 1 occurrence220–214 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences214–209 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences209–203 Mya — about 8 occurrences203–198 Mya — about 32 occurrences198–193 Mya — about 14 occurrences193–187 Mya — about 4 occurrences187–182 Mya — about 9 occurrences182–177 Mya — about 3 occurrences177–171 Mya — about 2 occurrences171–166 Mya — about 1 occurrence166–161 Mya — about 7 occurrences161–155 Mya — about 2 occurrences155–150 Mya — about 6 occurrences150–144 Mya — about 7 occurrences144–139 Mya — about 2 occurrences139–134 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences134–128 Mya — about 1 occurrence128–123 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences123–118 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences118–112 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences112–107 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences107–102 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences102–96 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences96–91 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences247 Mya106.3 Mya252 Mya91 Mya

106 occurrences of Ichthyosauridae on record, most of them in the Early 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

106 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

24 formations

Blue Lias — 50.70°N, 2.97°WBlue Lias — 52.36°N, 1.86°WBlue Lias — 52.03°N, 2.15°WBlue Lias — 50.73°N, 2.92°WBlue Lias — 51.13°N, 2.77°WBlue Lias — 51.13°N, 2.73°WWhite Lias — 51.12°N, 2.73°WAlum Shale — 54.55°N, 0.88°WAlum Shale — 54.48°N, 0.60°WAlum Shale — 54.45°N, 0.53°WWestbury — 51.60°N, 2.63°WWestbury — 51.82°N, 2.41°WWestbury — 51.93°N, 2.23°WLuning — 38.43°N, 118.05°WOxford Clay — 51.75°N, 1.24°WOxford Clay — 51.73°N, 1.21°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.74°N, 1.31°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.13°WMont-Lambert — 50.77°N, 1.63°EExter — 48.55°N, 9.07°EExter — 48.56°N, 9.07°ECharmouth Mudstone — 50.71°N, 2.96°WCharmouth Mudstone — 50.73°N, 2.91°WCerritos Bayos — 22.56°S, 69.14°WLuxembourg — 49.72°N, 5.80°ELias — 51.40°N, 2.46°WSandilands — 53.93°N, 133.15°WFaringdon Sand — 51.65°N, 1.58°WWhitby Mudstone — 54.53°N, 0.70°WOtter Point — 42.59°N, 124.40°WSables de Mortinsart — 49.71°N, 5.62°EGrès de Mortinsart — 49.70°N, 5.66°ELa Casita — 26.98°N, 102.08°WArgiles de Montaubert — 50.73°N, 1.84°EArdnish — 57.03°N, 5.54°WMarly Chalk — 52.95°N, 0.50°ELautaro — 28.20°S, 69.94°W

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The named rock units Ichthyosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 45 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ichthyosauridae and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Ichthyosauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

446 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 85 sites for Ichthyosauridae, 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

53 references

Each of the 106 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. 41 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 Ichthyosauridae

Credit
Ballista at English Wikipedia
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ichthyosauridae 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 itThunnosauria through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bonaparte 1841