Neochoristodera

Neochoristodera is a lineage of specialised crocodile-like fully aquatic choristodere reptiles. Noted for their long jaws and large size, these animals were predominant across the Northern Hemisphere, occurring in freshwater and coastal environments across the Cretaceous and early Cenozoic.

Neochoristodera

D. Gordon E. Robertson · 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
ChoristoderaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 76 million years on record.

The record covers at least 132.6 Mya to 56 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 48.07 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 292 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 20 of 292 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 220 of 292 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 49 of 292 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 3 of 292 occurrencesEocene145–142 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences142–138 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences138–135 Mya — about 1 occurrence135–132 Mya — about 2 occurrences132–129 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences129–125 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences125–122 Mya — about 1 occurrence122–119 Mya — about 3 occurrences119–115 Mya — about 4 occurrences115–112 Mya — about 3 occurrences112–109 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences109–105 Mya — about 1 occurrence105–102 Mya — about 1 occurrence102–99 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences92–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89–86 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–82 Mya — about 11 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 29 occurrences79–76 Mya — about 29 occurrences76–73 Mya — about 29 occurrences73–69 Mya — about 59 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 62 occurrences66–63 Mya — about 18 occurrences63–59 Mya — about 10 occurrences59–56 Mya — about 20 occurrences56–53 Mya — about 2 occurrences53–49 Mya — about 1 occurrence49–46 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences132.6 Mya56 Mya145 Mya46 Mya

292 occurrences of Neochoristodera on record, most of them in the Late 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

292 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

45 formations

Hell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 47.68°N, 106.43°WHell Creek — 46.03°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 46.18°N, 103.84°WHell Creek — 46.14°N, 103.80°WHell Creek — 46.38°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.00°WHell Creek — 46.36°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.94°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 45.53°N, 101.63°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.62°N, 107.32°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.25°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 106.27°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.88°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.23°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 46.90°N, 101.50°WHell Creek — 46.09°N, 100.63°WHell Creek — 45.73°N, 104.89°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.50°WHell Creek — 45.66°N, 105.08°WHell Creek — 45.89°N, 104.55°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WHell Creek — 45.64°N, 103.49°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 104.01°WHell Creek — 47.34°N, 108.22°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WDinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.82°N, 111.57°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.48°WDinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.49°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.40°WDinosaur Park — 50.78°N, 111.33°WDinosaur Park — 50.73°N, 111.57°WDinosaur Park — 49.96°N, 110.34°WDinosaur Park — 50.57°N, 111.76°WDinosaur Park — 50.56°N, 111.46°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WDinosaur Park — 50.51°N, 110.39°WOldman — 50.76°N, 111.62°WOldman — 50.75°N, 111.51°WOldman — 49.10°N, 110.94°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.84°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.68°WOldman — 49.16°N, 110.72°WOldman — 50.83°N, 111.32°WOldman — 50.70°N, 111.63°WLance — 43.35°N, 104.48°WLance — 43.30°N, 104.37°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WLance — 43.18°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 45.75°N, 101.20°WLance — 45.34°N, 103.72°WLance — 45.39°N, 103.70°WLance — 45.60°N, 103.63°WLance — 45.71°N, 102.05°WLance — 45.93°N, 103.92°WFort Union — 44.67°N, 108.44°WFort Union — 44.67°N, 108.46°WFort Union — 43.85°N, 108.35°WFort Union — 45.20°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 46.05°N, 104.48°WFort Union — 47.00°N, 103.87°WFort Union — 44.89°N, 108.98°WFort Union — 44.98°N, 109.02°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 47.60°N, 107.00°WFort Union — 44.89°N, 108.93°WHorseshoe Canyon — 52.27°N, 113.80°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.40°N, 112.71°WHorseshoe Canyon — 52.00°N, 112.88°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.94°N, 112.96°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.55°N, 112.88°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.54°N, 112.88°WFrenchman — 49.50°N, 109.10°WFrenchman — 49.04°N, 106.60°WFrenchman — 49.40°N, 107.40°WFrenchman — 49.52°N, 108.82°WFrenchman — 49.30°N, 108.40°WFerris — 41.94°N, 106.88°WTwo Medicine — 48.48°N, 112.70°WTwo Medicine — 48.63°N, 113.75°WTwo Medicine — 48.94°N, 112.64°WTwo Medicine — 48.21°N, 112.50°WBullion Creek — 47.05°N, 103.66°WForemost — 50.07°N, 111.14°WForemost — 49.13°N, 110.87°WForemost — 49.60°N, 111.00°WJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WJudith River — 46.10°N, 109.10°WJudith River — 46.40°N, 109.66°WJudith River — 43.64°N, 109.35°WDenver — 38.86°N, 104.61°WDenver — 38.91°N, 104.53°WNorth Horn — 39.18°N, 111.27°WNorth Horn — 39.10°N, 111.80°WNorth Horn — 39.00°N, 111.00°WRavenscrag — 49.30°N, 108.42°WRavenscrag — 49.50°N, 109.20°WRavenscrag — 49.06°N, 102.75°WSlope — 46.77°N, 101.29°WSlope — 46.70°N, 101.80°WSt. Mary River — 49.92°N, 112.99°WPaskapoo — 53.23°N, 114.70°WPaskapoo — 52.35°N, 113.77°WPaskapoo — 51.08°N, 114.16°WKhuren Dukh — 45.85°N, 108.40°EJiufotang — 41.51°N, 121.17°EJiufotang — 41.57°N, 120.45°EJiufotang — 42.27°N, 118.95°EWapiti — 55.08°N, 119.53°WWapiti — 55.07°N, 118.69°WWapiti — 55.26°N, 118.51°WIlek — 55.90°N, 87.96°EIlek — 56.53°N, 91.81°EIlek — 56.64°N, 91.99°ELuohandong — 38.92°N, 108.08°EJudith River — 49.10°N, 109.50°WJudith River — 50.50°N, 107.83°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Neochoristodera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 21 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Neochoristodera and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Neochoristodera and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1,108 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 279 sites for Neochoristodera, and this reads 240 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

121 references

Each of the 292 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. 109 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 Neochoristodera

Credit
D. Gordon E. Robertson
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Neochoristodera was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itChoristodera through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Evans and Hecht 1993)