Peirosauridae

Peirosauridae is a Gondwanan family of mesoeucrocodylians that lived during the Cretaceous period. It was a clade of terrestrial crocodyliforms that evolved a rather dog-like skull, and were terrestrial carnivores. It was phylogenetically defined in 2004 as the most recent common ancestor of Peirosaurus and Lomasuchinae and all of its descendants. Lomasuchinae is a subfamily of peirosaurids that includes the genus Lomasuchus.

Peirosauridae

CaptMondo · 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
PeirosauriaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pseudosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 49 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 9 of 47 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 38 of 47 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 47 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences125–123 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences115–112 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences112–110 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences110–108 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences108–106 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences106–104 Mya — about 1 occurrence104–102 Mya — about 1 occurrence102–100 Mya — about 1 occurrence100–98 Mya — about 2 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 2 occurrences96–94 Mya — about 2 occurrences94–92 Mya — about 2 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 2 occurrences90–88 Mya — about 1 occurrence88–86 Mya — about 1 occurrence86–83 Mya — about 4 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 2 occurrences81–79 Mya — about 2 occurrences79–77 Mya — about 2 occurrences77–75 Mya — about 2 occurrences75–73 Mya — about 2 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 3 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 4 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 4 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 1 occurrence121.4 Mya72.2 Mya127 Mya65 Mya

47 occurrences of Peirosauridae 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

47 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

22 formations

Cerro Fortaleza — 49.94°S, 72.05°WCerro Fortaleza — 49.95°S, 72.05°WMaevarano — 15.94°S, 46.64°EMaevarano — 15.72°S, 46.32°EMaevarano — 16.12°S, 45.74°EBajo de la Carpa — 38.94°S, 68.05°WBajo de la Carpa — 38.35°S, 68.78°WBajo de la Carpa — 37.61°S, 69.32°WBajo de la Carpa — 38.84°S, 68.84°WAdamantina — 21.17°S, 48.50°WAdamantina — 21.64°S, 50.06°WAdamantina — 20.92°S, 50.45°WAdamantina — 21.13°S, 49.01°WPortezuelo — 38.35°S, 68.78°WPortezuelo — 38.45°S, 68.72°WPortezuelo — 38.45°S, 68.79°WElrhaz — 16.45°N, 9.13°EElrhaz — 16.70°N, 9.33°EGalula — 8.70°S, 32.70°ESerra da Galga — 19.72°S, 47.75°WLa Amarga — 39.48°S, 70.19°WCerro Lisandro — 39.07°S, 69.15°WGara Samani — 29.67°N, 1.92°ECerro Barcino — 34.10°S, 68.56°WEchkar — 17.71°N, 5.80°EPresidente Prudente — 22.22°S, 51.43°WRomualdo — 7.22°S, 39.27°WAnacleto — 37.13°S, 69.05°WUberaba — 19.73°S, 47.95°WAçu — 5.16°S, 38.10°WAraçatuba — 22.20°S, 51.53°WBahariya — 28.43°N, 28.92°ECiénaga del Río Huaco — 28.50°S, 68.75°WChorrillo — 50.51°S, 72.56°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Peirosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Peirosauridae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

216 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 42 sites for Peirosauridae, 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

40 references

Each of the 47 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. 28 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 Peirosauridae

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

No 3D scan of Peirosauridae 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 itPeirosauria through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gasparini 1982)