Theatonius
Theatonius is an extinct genus of Cretaceous amphibians known from North America. Originally described from the Lance Formation, Wyoming, it is now also known from Utah, Montana, and New Jersey.
No picture of Theatonius was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Theatonius, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- AnuraPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
- Life habit
- amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
- Environment
- brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda
Time the record covers
At most 18 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 83.6 Mya and 66 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
8 occurrences of Theatonius 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
8 occurrences- Late Cretaceous100%
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
5 formations
- Kaiparowits Formation4
- Lance Formation1
- Hell Creek Formation1
- Marshalltown Formation · Matawan Group1
- Williams Fork Formation · Mesaverde Group1
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The named rock units Theatonius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Theatonius and its relatives
Late CretaceousWhere Theatonius and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.
Found in the same rock
260 taxa- Albanerpetontidae6 sites
- Anura6 sites
- Acanthomorphata4 sites
- Albanerpeton nexuosus4 sites
- Hadrosauridae4 sites
- Hiodontidae4 sites
- Opisthotriton4 sites
- Platynota4 sites
- Scincomorpha4 sites
- Teleostei4 sites
- Anguimorpha3 sites
- Chamops segnis3 sites
- Coriops3 sites
- Estesesox3 sites
- Gypsonictops3 sites
- Mesodma hensleighi3 sites
- Otophysa3 sites
- Palaeoscincosaurus pharkidodon3 sites
- Paranyctoides3 sites
- Scotiophryne pustulosa3 sites
- Serpentes3 sites
- Theropoda3 sites
- Trionychidae3 sites
- Adocus2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Theatonius, 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
4 references- The hopping dead: Late Cretaceous frogs from the middle-late Campanian (Judithian) of western North America3
- Mesozoic and Palaeocene lissamphibian assemblages of North America: a comprehensive review3
- Fish & Reptiles of the Rebecca’s Hollow Site, Williams Fork Formation, Late Cretaceous (Edmontonian), Colorado & ‘Between The Dinosaurs’ Toes’: Approaches to Exhibiting Microvertebrate Fossils in Museum Displays (With Emphasis on the Cretaceous Period)1
- An edentulous frog (Theatonius lancensis, new genus and species) from the Upper Cretaceous Lance Formation of Wyoming1
Each of the 8 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 content0
No picture of Theatonius was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.
Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.
GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Theatonius, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.
No 3D scan of Theatonius 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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Theatonius”
- 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 itAnura through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fox 1976