Parasuchus
Searched as Paleorhinus cf. arenaceus. The Paleobiology Database treats Parasuchus as the accepted name.
Paleorhinus is an extinct genus of widespread basal phytosaur known from the Late Triassic. The genus was named in 1904 based on the type species Paleorhinus bransoni, which is known from Wyoming and Texas in the United States. Another valid species, Paleorhinus angustifrons from Bavaria, Germany, is also commonly referred to the genus. Paleorhinus had a length of about 2.5 meters.

Stephan Lautenschlager, Richard J. Butler · CC BY 4.0 · 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
- ParasuchidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida
Time the record covers
At most 32 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 237 Mya and 205.7 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
2 occurrences of Parasuchus on record, most of them in the Late 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
2 occurrences- Late Triassic100%
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
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Parasuchus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Parasuchus and its relatives
Late TriassicWhere Parasuchus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.
Found in the same rock
121 taxa- Phytosauria6 sites
- Anaschisma browni4 sites
- Hyperodapedon huxleyi4 sites
- Trilophosaurus buettneri4 sites
- Aetosauria3 sites
- Archosauromorpha3 sites
- Ceratodus3 sites
- Coelacanthidae3 sites
- Metoposaurus3 sites
- Osteichthyes3 sites
- Poposaurus gracilis3 sites
- Postosuchus kirkpatricki3 sites
- Trilophosaurus3 sites
- Turseodus3 sites
- Actinopterygii2 sites
- Archosauria2 sites
- Brachysuchus megalodon2 sites
- Doswellia2 sites
- Lissodus2 sites
- Longosuchus meadei2 sites
- Lucasuchus hunti2 sites
- Metoposauridae2 sites
- Metoposaurus diagnosticus2 sites
- Mystriosuchinae2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Parasuchus, 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
2 references- A review of the early Late Triassic Krasiejów biota from Silesia, Poland1
- Póznotriasowe cmentarzysko kregowców ladowych w Krasiejowie na Slasku Opolskim [Post-Triassic graveyard of terrestrial vertebrates in Krasiejów in Opole, Silesia]1
Each of the 2 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 the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Parasuchus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Stephan Lautenschlager, Richard J. Butler
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Parasuchus 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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Paleorhinus”
- 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 itParasuchidae through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Williston 1904