Palaeovaranus

Palaeovaranus is an extinct genus of varanoid lizards from the Late Eocene of France and Germany. It contains two species, Palaeovaranus cayluxensis and Palaeovaranus giganteus. The genus was first named by Henri Filhol in 1877, but he had named the species Palaeovaranus cayluxi earlier as Palaeosaurus cayluxi in 1873, and as Necrosaurus cuxleyi in 1876 after it was discovered that Palaeosaurus was preoccupied. However, he failed to provide any kind of valid description, which renders Karl Alfred Ritter von Zittel's 1887 description of the taxon as the valid authority on its validity. Despite this, the name Necrosaurus was the widely used name in the literature afterwards until 2017, when the name Palaeovaranus was revived. It is placed in the family Palaeovaranidae.

Palaeovaranus

Patricia Holroyd, University of California Museum of Paleontology · CC BY 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
PalaeovaranidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 22 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 37.71 Mya and 15.98 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 1 of 3 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 3 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 1 of 3 occurrencesMiocene38–37 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38.2 Mya15.5 Mya

3 occurrences of Palaeovaranus on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

1 formation

Quercy Phosphorites — 44.27°N, 1.63°E

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

Palaeovaranus and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Palaeovaranus and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

48 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Palaeovaranus, 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

1 reference

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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Palaeovaranus

Credit
Patricia Holroyd, University of California Museum of Paleontology
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Palaeovaranus 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 itPalaeovaranidae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zittel 1887