Mastodonsaurus

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.

Mastodonsaurus

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
CapitosauroideaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda
Length
6 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 38 million years on record.

The record covers at least 244.4 Mya to 205.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 247 Mya to 201.4 Mya.

Early Triassic — about 0 of 28 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 27 of 28 occurrencesMiddle TriassicLate Triassic — about 1 of 28 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 28 occurrences248–246 Mya — about 1 occurrence246–245 Mya — about 3 occurrences245–243 Mya — about 3 occurrences243–242 Mya — about 3 occurrences242–240 Mya — about 2 occurrences240–238 Mya — about 7 occurrences238–237 Mya — about 8 occurrences207–205 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences205–204 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences204–202 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences202–200 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences244.4 Mya205.7 Mya247.9 Mya200.5 Mya

28 occurrences of Mastodonsaurus 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

28 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

7 formations

Erfurt — 49.08°N, 9.89°EErfurt — 49.07°N, 9.76°EErfurt — 49.21°N, 9.68°EErfurt — 49.00°N, 9.77°EErfurt — 48.92°N, 9.08°EErfurt — 48.90°N, 9.20°EErfurt — 48.92°N, 8.95°EErfurt — 49.18°N, 9.87°EErfurt — 50.90°N, 10.95°EErfurt — 50.38°N, 10.65°EBromsgrove Sandstone — 52.29°N, 1.58°WBromsgrove Sandstone — 52.30°N, 1.52°WBromsgrove Sandstone — 52.33°N, 2.08°WBukobay — 52.41°N, 55.65°EBukobay — 51.45°N, 55.49°EBukobay — 51.44°N, 55.52°EUpper Buntsandstein — 47.67°N, 8.32°EUpper Buntsandstein — 50.00°N, 9.75°EBlue Anchor — 51.41°N, 3.17°WGutenstein — 47.68°N, 14.73°ERöt — 47.68°N, 8.16°E

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The named rock units Mastodonsaurus 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.

Mastodonsaurus and its relatives

Middle Triassic

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

Found in the same rock

161 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 25 sites for Mastodonsaurus, 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

15 references

Each of the 28 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. 3 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 content3

Picture of Mastodonsaurus

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

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Mastodonsaurus sp. · smns:p:54677

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itCapitosauroidea through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Jaeger 1828)