Rauisuchidae

Rauisuchidae is a group of large predatory Triassic archosaurs. Some disagreement exists over which genera should be included in the Rauisuchidae and which should be in the related Prestosuchidae and Poposauridae, and indeed whether these should even be thought of as separate valid families. Rauisuchidae in the modern sense was defined by Sterling Nesbitt in 2011 as the most inclusive clade containing Rauisuchus tiradentes, but not Prestosuchus chiniquensis, Poposaurus gracilis, or Crocodylus niloticus. In this modern sense, rauisuchids are recovered as members of the clade Loricata, being the sister taxon of Crocodylomorpha, and being more derived than taxa such as Prestosuchus and Batrachotomus. Rauisuchids occurred throughout much of the Triassic, and may have first occurred in the Early Triassic if some archosaurian taxa such as Scythosuchus and Tsylmosuchus are considered to be within the family.

Rauisuchidae

Dallas Krentzel · CC BY 2.0 · 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
Also called
rauisuchidPBDB
Sits inside
LoricataPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pseudosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At least 47 million years on record.

The record covers at least 248.6 Mya to 201.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 251.902 Mya to 72.2 Mya.

Permian — about 0 of 77 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 3 of 77 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 9 of 77 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 63 of 77 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 77 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 77 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 77 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 77 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 77 occurrencesLate Cretaceous255–249 Mya — about 2 occurrences249–243 Mya — about 4 occurrences243–237 Mya — about 7 occurrences237–231 Mya — about 8 occurrences231–224 Mya — about 10 occurrences224–218 Mya — about 13 occurrences218–212 Mya — about 14 occurrences212–206 Mya — about 14 occurrences206–199 Mya — about 4 occurrences199–193 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences193–187 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences187–181 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences181–175 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences175–168 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences168–162 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences162–156 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences156–150 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences150–143 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences143–137 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences137–131 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences131–125 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences125–118 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences118–112 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences112–106 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences106–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100–94 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences94–87 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences87–81 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences81–75 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences75–69 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences248.6 Mya201.4 Mya255 Mya69 Mya

77 occurrences of Rauisuchidae 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

77 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

26 formations

Chinle — 34.44°N, 109.46°WChinle — 34.89°N, 109.79°WChinle — 35.11°N, 109.83°WChinle — 36.32°N, 106.48°WChinle — 35.82°N, 111.25°WChinle — 35.65°N, 111.12°WChinle — 35.38°N, 109.37°WChinle — 35.03°N, 109.85°WChinle — 34.94°N, 109.74°WChinle — 34.77°N, 109.52°WChinle — 35.87°N, 111.33°WChinle — 35.41°N, 108.47°WChinle — 34.68°N, 109.58°WSanta Maria — 29.67°S, 53.75°WGarita Creek — 35.33°N, 104.33°WGarita Creek — 35.28°N, 104.40°WGarita Creek — 35.28°N, 104.55°WTecovas — 33.57°N, 101.13°WTecovas — 35.38°N, 102.16°WTecovas — 33.42°N, 101.15°WCooper Canyon — 33.52°N, 101.32°WCooper Canyon — 33.11°N, 101.45°WCooper Canyon — 33.00°N, 101.15°WChañares — 29.85°S, 67.78°WChañares — 29.82°S, 67.79°WElliot — 28.67°S, 28.25°EElliot — 29.08°S, 27.37°ETimezgadiouine — 31.07°N, 8.93°WDrawno Beds — 50.67°N, 18.25°EFalling Creek — 37.83°N, 77.43°WBukobay — 52.41°N, 55.65°EBukobay — 51.44°N, 55.52°EDonguz — 51.55°N, 55.36°EDonguz — 52.53°N, 53.50°EWolfville — 45.22°N, 64.00°WWolfville — 45.40°N, 63.96°WColorado City — 32.82°N, 101.43°WColorado City — 32.17°N, 101.25°WLipovskaya — 49.26°N, 43.67°EFleming Fjord — 71.26°N, 22.54°WMpandi — 22.14°S, 29.51°ELöwenstein — 48.76°N, 9.14°ERottweil — 49.11°N, 9.73°EBull Canyon — 35.37°N, 103.38°WRedonda — 35.07°N, 103.63°WTrujillo — 35.00°N, 103.38°WTiki — 23.92°N, 81.37°EOmingonde — 21.06°S, 16.39°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Rauisuchidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Rauisuchidae and its relatives

Late Triassic

Where Rauisuchidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.

Found in the same rock

332 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 74 sites for Rauisuchidae, 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

43 references

Each of the 77 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. 31 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 content2

Picture of Rauisuchidae

Credit
Dallas Krentzel
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Rauisuchidae indet. · pefo:55551

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 itLoricata through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Huene 1942)