Nannosuchus

Nannosuchus is an extinct genus of goniopholidid mesoeucrocodylian from the Berriasian Middle Purbeck Formation of England that was originally named as a species of Goniopholis. The type species, N. gracilidens, is based on the holotype BMNH 48217, scattered fragmentary remains that include parts of the skull and various other postcranial elements described in 1879.

Nannosuchus

C. L. Griesbach · Public Domain · 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
GoniopholididaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pseudosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 13 million years on record.

The record covers at least 139.1 Mya to 125.77 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 121.4 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 3 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 3 of 3 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous144–143 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences143–142 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences142–141 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences141–141 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences141–140 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences140–139 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences126–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–125 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences125–124 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences124–123 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences123–122 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences122–122 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences122–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences139.1 Mya125.77 Mya143.6 Mya120.9 Mya

3 occurrences of Nannosuchus on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

3 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

Lulworth — 50.60°N, 1.97°WLulworth — 50.58°N, 1.95°WLa Huérguina — 40.12°N, 1.97°W

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

Nannosuchus and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Nannosuchus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

71 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Nannosuchus, 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 3 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 Nannosuchus

Credit
C. L. Griesbach
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Nannosuchus 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 itGoniopholididae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1879