Vulcanodontidae

The Early Jurassic sauropod dinosaurs Zizhongosaurus, Barapasaurus, Tazoudasaurus, and Vulcanodon may form a natural group of basal sauropods called the Vulcanodontidae. Basal vulcanodonts include some of the earliest known examples of sauropods. The family-level name Vulcanodontidae was erected by M.R. Cooper in 1984. In 1995 Hunt et al. published the opinion that the family is synonymous with the Barapasauridae. One of the key morphological features specific to the family is an unusually narrow sacrum.

Vulcanodontidae

Bardrock · Public Domain · 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
Also called
vulcanodontidPBDB
Sits inside
GravisauriaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda

Time the record covers

At most 1.9 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 201.4 Mya and 199.5 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 2 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 2 of 2 occurrencesEarly Jurassic201–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–199 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences201.9 Mya199 Mya

2 occurrences of Vulcanodontidae on record, most of them in the Early 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

2 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

Monte Zugna — 45.85°N, 11.05°E

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

Vulcanodontidae and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Vulcanodontidae and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

10 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Vulcanodontidae, 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

1 reference

Each of the 2 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 the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Vulcanodontidae

Credit
Bardrock
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itGravisauria through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cooper 1984