Torvoneustes

Torvoneustes is an extinct genus of metriorhynchid thalattosuchian. It is known from skull and postcranial remains found in the Kimmeridge Clay Formation of Dorset and Wiltshire, England, the Virgula Marls of Switzerland and also from Oaxaca, Mexico . The holotype skull of the type species was initially assigned to the species Metriorhynchus superciliosus. Postcranial remains were later discovered from the same quarry as the skull, and then these specimens were recognised as belonging to a new species of Dakosaurus, as D. carpenteri. The species was named to honour Simon Carpenter, an amateur geologist from Frome in Somerset, who discovered the fossils.

Torvoneustes

Mark T. Young, Stephen L. Brusatte, Marco Brandalise de Andrade, Julia B. Desojo, Brian L. Beatty, Lorna Steel, Marta… · CC BY 2.5 · 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
GeosaurinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Environment
marinePBDB, for Thalattosuchia

Time the record covers

At least 20 million years on record.

The record covers at least 157.9 Mya to 137.05 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 159 Mya to 132.6 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 8 of 9 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 9 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous160–159 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences159–158 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 1 occurrence151–150 Mya — about 1 occurrence150–149 Mya — about 1 occurrence149–149 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences138–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–136 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences136–135 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences135–134 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences134–133 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences133–132 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences157.9 Mya137.05 Mya159.5 Mya132.1 Mya

9 occurrences of Torvoneustes on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. 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

9 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

5 formations

Kimmeridge Clay — 51.25°N, 2.16°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.36°N, 1.65°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.59°N, 2.06°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.61°N, 2.16°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.75°N, 1.18°WSabinal — 17.00°N, 97.00°WKingston — 51.76°N, 1.20°WKoprivnice — 49.58°N, 18.12°EReuchenette — 47.42°N, 7.02°E

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The named rock units Torvoneustes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Torvoneustes and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Torvoneustes and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

18 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Torvoneustes, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

7 references

Each of the 9 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Torvoneustes

Credit
Mark T. Young, Stephen L. Brusatte, Marco Brandalise de Andrade, Julia B. Desojo, Brian L. Beatty, Lorna Steel, Marta…
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Torvoneustes 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 itGeosaurinae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Andrade et al. 2010