Tanystropheus

Tanystropheus is an extinct genus of archosauromorph reptile which lived during the Triassic Period in Europe, Asia, and North America. It is recognizable by its extremely elongated neck, longer than the torso and tail combined. The neck is composed of 13 vertebrae, strengthened by long cervical ribs. Tanystropheus is one of the most well-described non-archosauriform archosauromorphs. It is known from numerous fossils, including nearly complete skeletons. Some species within the genus may have reached a total length of 6 meters (20 ft), making Tanystropheus the longest non-archosauriform archosauromorph as well. Tanystropheus is the namesake of the family Tanystropheidae, a clade collecting many long-necked Triassic archosauromorphs previously described as "protorosaurs" or "prolacertiforms".

Tanystropheus

Ghedoghedo · 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
TanystropheidaePBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At least 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 243.43 Mya to 205.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 247 Mya to 201.4 Mya.

Early Triassic — about 0 of 19 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 16 of 19 occurrencesMiddle TriassicLate Triassic — about 3 of 19 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 19 occurrences248–246 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences246–245 Mya — about 2 occurrences245–243 Mya — about 3 occurrences243–242 Mya — about 3 occurrences242–240 Mya — about 2 occurrences240–238 Mya — about 3 occurrences238–237 Mya — about 3 occurrences227–226 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences226–224 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences224–223 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences223–221 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences221–219 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences219–218 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences218–216 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences216–215 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences215–213 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences213–212 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences212–210 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences210–208 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences208–207 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences207–205 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences205–204 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences204–202 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences202–200 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences243.43 Mya205.7 Mya247.9 Mya200.5 Mya

19 occurrences of Tanystropheus 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

19 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

11 formations

Erfurt — 49.21°N, 9.68°EErfurt — 49.04°N, 9.77°EBesano — 45.91°N, 8.94°ETrossingen — 51.90°N, 11.07°EOtter Sandstone — 50.67°N, 3.27°WFalang — 25.08°N, 104.90°EMeride — 45.90°N, 8.95°ELöwenstein — 48.76°N, 9.14°EBesano — 45.89°N, 8.90°EGevanim — 30.35°N, 34.79°EMeride Limestone — 45.91°N, 8.95°EWolfville — 45.40°N, 63.96°W

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The named rock units Tanystropheus 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.

Tanystropheus and its relatives

Middle Triassic

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

Found in the same rock

95 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Tanystropheus, 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

17 references

Each of the 19 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. 5 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 content3

Picture of Tanystropheus

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
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
Tanystropheus sp. · smns:54628

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itTanystropheidae through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. von Meyer 1852