Thecodontosaurus antiquus

Thecodontosaurus is a genus of herbivorous basal sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived during the late Triassic period. Its remains are known mostly from Triassic "fissure fillings" in southern England. Thecodontosaurus was a small bipedal animal, about 2 m (6.6 ft) long. It is one of the first dinosaurs to be discovered and is one of the oldest that ever existed. Many species have been named within the genus, but only the type species Thecodontosaurus antiquus is seen as valid today.

Thecodontosaurus antiquus

Jaime A. Headden ( User:Qilong ) · 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
ThecodontosaurusPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At least 21 million years on record.

The record covers at least 227.3 Mya to 205.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 237 Mya to 201.4 Mya.

Middle Triassic — about 0 of 3 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 3 of 3 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 3 occurrences238–236 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences236–235 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences235–234 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences234–233 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences233–232 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences232–230 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences230–229 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences229–228 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences228–227 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences207–206 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences206–204 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences204–203 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences203–202 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences202–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences227.3 Mya205.7 Mya237.7 Mya200.7 Mya

3 occurrences of Thecodontosaurus antiquus 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

3 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

1 formation

Magnesian Conglomerate — 51.47°N, 2.62°W

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The named rock units Thecodontosaurus antiquus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Thecodontosaurus antiquus and its relatives

Late Triassic

Where Thecodontosaurus antiquus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.

Found in the same rock

31 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Thecodontosaurus antiquus, 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

3 references

Each of the 3 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 Thecodontosaurus antiquus

Credit
Jaime A. Headden ( User:Qilong )
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Thecodontosaurus antiquus 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 itThecodontosaurus through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Morris 1843