Poposauroidea

Poposauroidea is a clade of advanced pseudosuchians. It includes poposaurids, shuvosaurids, ctenosauriscids, and other unusual pseudosuchians such as Qianosuchus and Lotosaurus. It excludes most large predatory quadrupedal "rauisuchians" such as rauisuchids and "prestosuchids". Those reptiles are now allied with crocodylomorphs in a clade known as Loricata, which is the sister taxon to the poposauroids in the clade Paracrocodylomorpha. Although it was first formally defined in 2007, the name "Poposauroidea" has been used for many years. The group has been referred to as Poposauridae by some authors, although this name is often used more narrowly to refer to the family that includes Poposaurus and its close relatives. It was phylogenetically defined in 2011 by Sterling Nesbitt as Poposaurus gracilis and all taxa more closely related to it than to Postosuchus kirkpatricki, Crocodylus niloticus, Ornithosuchus woodwardi, or Aetosaurus ferratus.

Poposauroidea

LiterallyMiguel · 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
PseudosuchiaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pseudosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At least 41 million years on record.

The record covers at least 247 Mya to 205.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 250.8 Mya to 201.4 Mya.

Early Triassic — about 2 of 49 occurrencesEarly TriassicMiddle Triassic — about 25 of 49 occurrencesMiddle TriassicLate Triassic — about 22 of 49 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 49 occurrences252–250 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences250–248 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences248–247 Mya — about 4 occurrences247–245 Mya — about 11 occurrences245–243 Mya — about 7 occurrences243–242 Mya — about 4 occurrences242–240 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences238–236 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences236–235 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences235–233 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences233–231 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences231–230 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences230–228 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences228–226 Mya — about 1 occurrence226–224 Mya — about 1 occurrence224–223 Mya — about 1 occurrence223–221 Mya — about 1 occurrence221–219 Mya — about 1 occurrence219–218 Mya — about 1 occurrence218–216 Mya — about 1 occurrence216–214 Mya — about 1 occurrence214–212 Mya — about 1 occurrence212–211 Mya — about 1 occurrence211–209 Mya — about 1 occurrence209–207 Mya — about 1 occurrence207–206 Mya — about 1 occurrence206–204 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences204–202 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences202–200 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences247 Mya205.7 Mya252 Mya200 Mya

49 occurrences of Poposauroidea on record, most of them in the Middle 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

49 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

16 formations

Moenkopi — 34.92°N, 110.26°WMoenkopi — 35.00°N, 110.50°WMoenkopi — 35.87°N, 111.40°WMoenkopi — 35.08°N, 110.84°WMoenkopi — 35.20°N, 105.08°WChinle — 34.44°N, 109.46°WChinle — 34.51°N, 109.36°WChinle — 34.53°N, 109.32°WChinle — 35.03°N, 109.85°WChinle — 35.63°N, 109.10°WChinle — 34.87°N, 109.80°WChinle — 35.82°N, 111.25°WChinle — 38.00°N, 111.13°WChinle — 34.68°N, 109.58°WColorado City — 32.17°N, 101.25°WColorado City — 32.13°N, 101.25°WBromsgrove Sandstone — 52.29°N, 1.58°WBromsgrove Sandstone — 52.33°N, 2.08°WManda Beds — 10.34°S, 35.22°EManda Beds — 10.30°S, 35.31°EManda Beds — 10.38°S, 35.27°EManda Beds — 10.35°S, 34.84°ETecovas — 33.45°N, 101.17°WTecovas — 33.50°N, 101.07°WTecovas — 33.58°N, 101.17°WPopo Agie — 42.70°N, 108.67°WPopo Agie — 43.23°N, 109.00°WXinlingzhen — 29.50°N, 110.30°EXinlingzhen — 31.16°N, 111.69°EZbaszynek Beds/Wielichowo Beds — 50.68°N, 18.65°EGuanling — 25.70°N, 104.47°EHeshanggou — 39.43°N, 110.85°ESolling — 51.47°N, 10.01°ERöt — 47.68°N, 8.16°ELipovskaya — 49.26°N, 43.67°ECooper Canyon — 33.45°N, 101.44°WFavret — 40.07°N, 117.58°W

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

Poposauroidea and its relatives

Middle Triassic

Where Poposauroidea and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Triassic.

Found in the same rock

235 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 41 sites for Poposauroidea, 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

33 references

Each of the 49 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. 21 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 Poposauroidea

Credit
LiterallyMiguel
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Poposauroidea 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 itPseudosuchia through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Nopcsa 1923)