Saurocephalus

Saurocephalus is an extinct genus of ray-finned fishes within the family Saurodontidae. The genus was first described in 1824 and contains six or seven species, including the type species S. lanciformis. Saurocephalus first appeared during the early Valanginian and continued on to the Maastrichtian, where it nearly went extinct. However, the recent discovery of S. lanciformis remains from the earliest Paleocene indicates that it just barely survived into the Cenozoic. This would make it the last surviving ichthyodectiform.

Saurocephalus

Skye McDavid · 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
SaurodontidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Ichthyodectiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Ichthyodectiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ichthyodectiformes

Time the record covers

At least 84 million years on record.

The record covers at least 125.77 Mya to 41.03 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 132.6 Mya to 37.71 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 2 of 12 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 8 of 12 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 12 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 1 of 12 occurrencesEocene134–131 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences131–128 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences128–125 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences115–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–108 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences102–98 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences98–95 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences95–92 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences88–85 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 2 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 1 occurrence79–75 Mya — about 1 occurrence75–72 Mya — about 1 occurrence72–69 Mya — about 1 occurrence69–65 Mya — about 1 occurrence65–62 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences62–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–39 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences39–36 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences125.77 Mya41.03 Mya134 Mya36 Mya

12 occurrences of Saurocephalus 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

12 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

8 formations

Mooreville Chalk — 32.96°N, 88.13°WMooreville Chalk — 31.91°N, 87.87°WMaadi — 30.08°N, 31.25°EPierre Shale — 43.31°N, 104.22°WMuwaddar Chalk Marl — 31.56°N, 36.51°EWest Melbury Marly Chalk — 51.08°N, 1.18°ERybushka — 51.23°N, 45.10°EMaastricht — 50.83°N, 5.68°EHornerstown — 39.76°N, 75.13°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Saurocephalus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Saurocephalus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

262 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Saurocephalus, 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

9 references

Each of the 12 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. 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 Saurocephalus

Credit
Skye McDavid
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Saurocephalus 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 itSaurodontidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Harlan 1824