Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos
Tyrannoneustes is an extinct genus of geosaurine metriorhynchid crocodyliform from the Callovian stage Oxford Clay Formation of England and the Marnes de Dives of France. It contains a single species, Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos, meaning "blood-biting tyrant swimmer".

LiterallyMiguel · 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
- TyrannoneustesPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Thalattosuchia
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Thalattosuchia
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Thalattosuchia
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Thalattosuchia
Time the record covers
At most 3.8 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 165.3 Mya and 161.5 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
5 occurrences of Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos on record, most of them in the Middle 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
5 occurrences- Middle Jurassic100%
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
3 formations
- Oxford Clay Formation · Ancholme Group3
- Marnes de Dives Formation1
- Ornatenton Formation · Braunjura Group1
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos and its relatives
Middle JurassicWhere Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.
Found in the same rock
33 taxa- Camptosauridae1 site
- Charitomenosuchus leedsi1 site
- Cryptoclidus eurymerus1 site
- Dakosaurus1 site
- Gracilineustes leedsi1 site
- Heterostrophus phillipsi1 site
- Lemmysuchus obtusidens1 site
- Lepidotus latifrons1 site
- Lepidotus leedsi1 site
- Lepidotus macrocheirus1 site
- Liopleurodon ferox1 site
- Machimosaurus hugii1 site
- Metriorhynchus brachyrhynchus1 site
- Metriorhynchus moreli1 site
- Muraenosaurus leedsii1 site
- Mycterosuchus nasutus1 site
- Neosteneosaurus edwardsi1 site
- Ophthalmosaurus icenicus1 site
- Peloneustes philarchus1 site
- Pentasteria recta1 site
- Picrocleidus beloclis1 site
- Pliosauridae1 site
- Pliosaurus andrewsi1 site
- Rhamphorhynchidae1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos, 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- The cranial osteology of Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos (Crocodylomorpha: Metriorhynchidae) from the Middle Jurassic of Europe2
- The oldest known metriorhynchid super-predator: a new genus and species from the Middle Jurassic of England, with implications for serration and mandibular evolution in predacious clades2
- The first record of Tyrannoneustes (Thalattosuchia: Metriorhynchidae): a complete skull from the Callovian (late Middle Jurassic) of Germany1
Each of the 5 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 content2
Picture of Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- LiterallyMiguel
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
Laser scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos · camsm:64373
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 itTyrannoneustes through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Young et al. 2013