Tithonian
Encyclopedia
In the geologic timescale the Tithonian is the latest age of the Late Jurassic
Late Jurassic
The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 161.2 ± 4.0 to 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago , which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata. In European lithostratigraphy, the name "Malm" indicates rocks of Late Jurassic age...

 epoch
Epoch (geology)
An epoch is a subdivision of the geologic timescale based on rock layering. In order, the higher subdivisions are periods, eras and eons. We are currently living in the Holocene epoch...

 or the uppermost stage of the Upper Jurassic series
Series (stratigraphy)
Series are subdivisions of rock layers made based on the age of the rock and corresponding to the dating system unit called an epoch, both being formally defined international conventions of the geological timescale. A series is therefore a sequence of rock depositions defining a...

. It spans the time between 150.8 ± 4 Ma and 145.5 ± 4 Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Kimmeridgian
Kimmeridgian
In the geologic timescale, the Kimmeridgian is an age or stage in the Late or Upper Jurassic epoch or series. It spans the time between 155.7 ± 4 Ma and 150.8 ± 4 Ma . The Kimmeridgian follows the Oxfordian and precedes the Tithonian....

 and followed by the Berriasian
Berriasian
In the geological timescale, the Berriasian is an age or stage of the Early or Lower Creteceous. It is the oldest or lowest subdivision in the entire Cretaceous. It spanned between 145.5 ± 4.0 Ma and 140.2 ± 3.0 Ma...

 stage (part of the Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

).

Stratigraphic definitions

The Tithonian was introduced in scientific literature by German stratigrapher Albert Oppel
Albert Oppel
Carl Albert Oppel was a German paleontologist.-History:He was born at Hohenheim in Württemberg, on December 19, 1831. He first went to the University of Tübingen, where he graduated with a Ph.D. in 1853. The results of his work was published in Die Juraformation Englands, Frankreichs and des...

 in 1865. The name Tithonian is unusual in geological stage names because it is derived from Greek mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

. Tithonus
Tithonus
In Greek mythology, Tithonus or Tithonos was the lover of Eos, Titan of the dawn. He was a Trojan by birth, the son of King Laomedon of Troy by a water nymph named Strymo . The mythology reflected by the fifth-century vase-painters of Athens envisaged Tithonus as a rhapsode, as the lyre in his...

 was the son of Laomedon
Laomedon
In Greek mythology, Laomedon was a Trojan king, son of Ilus, brother of Ganymede and Assaracus, and father of Priam, Astyoche, Lampus, Hicetaon, Clytius, Cilla, Proclia, Aethilla, Medesicaste, Clytodora, and Hesione...

 of Troy
Troy
Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...

. He fell in love with Eos
Eos
In Greek mythology, Eos is the Titan goddess of the dawn, who rose from her home at the edge of Oceanus, the ocean that surrounds the world, to herald her brother Helios, the Sun.- Greek literature :...

, the Greek goddess of dawn
Dawn
Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of the twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the presence of weak sunlight, while the sun itself is still below the horizon...

 and finds his place in the stratigraphy
Stratigraphy
Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, studies rock layers and layering . It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks....

 because this stage, the Tithonian, finds itself hand in hand with the dawn of the Cretaceous.

The base of the Tithonian stage is at the base of the ammonite
Ammonite
Ammonite, as a zoological or paleontological term, refers to any member of the Ammonoidea an extinct subclass within the Molluscan class Cephalopoda which are more closely related to living coleoids Ammonite, as a zoological or paleontological term, refers to any member of the Ammonoidea an extinct...

 biozone
Biozone
Biostratigraphic units or Biozones are intervals of geological strata that are defined on the basis of their characteristic fossil taxa....

 of Hybonoticeras hybonotum. A global reference profile (a GSSP or golden spike) for the base of the Tithonian had in 2009 not yet been established.

The top of the Tithonian stage (the base of the Berriasian stage and the Cretaceous system) is at the first appearance of fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

s of ammonite species Berriasella jacobi
Berriasella
Berriasella is a discoidal evolute perisphinctacean ammonite, and type genus for the neocomitid subfamily Berriasellinae. Its ribbing is distinct, consisting of both simple and bifurcated ribs that extend from the umbilical seam across the venter; its whorl section generally compressed, the venter...

in the stratigraphic record.

Subdivision

The Tithonian is often subdivided into Lower/Early, Middle and Upper/Late substages or subages. The Late Tithonian is coeval with the Portlandian stage of British stratigraphy.

The Tithonian stage contains seven ammonite biozones in the Tethys domain
Tethys Ocean
The Tethys Ocean was an ocean that existed between the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia during the Mesozoic era before the opening of the Indian Ocean.-Modern theory:...

, from top to base:
  • zone of Durangites
  • zone of Micracanthoceras micranthum
  • zone of Micracanthoceras ponti or Burckardticeras peroni
  • zone of Semiformiceras fallauxi
  • zone of Semiformiceras semiforme
  • zone of Semiformiceras darwini
  • zone of Hybonoticeras hybonotum

Lithofacies

In the Tethys domain, the Tithonian has a calcareous facies with a typical cephalopod
Cephalopod
A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda . These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, and a set of arms or tentacles modified from the primitive molluscan foot...

 fauna. The Solnhofen limestone
Solnhofen limestone
The Solnhofen Plattenkalk is a Jurassic Konservat-Lagerstätte that preserves a rare assemblage of fossilized organisms, including highly detailed imprints of soft bodied organisms such as sea jellies...

 of southern Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, which is known for its fossils (especially Archaeopteryx
Archaeopteryx
Archaeopteryx , sometimes referred to by its German name Urvogel , is a genus of theropod dinosaur that is closely related to birds. The name derives from the Ancient Greek meaning "ancient", and , meaning "feather" or "wing"...

), is of Tithonian age.

†Ankylosaurs

Ankylosauria
Ankylosauria
Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the order Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. They are first known to have appeared in the early Jurassic Period of...

 of the Tithonian
Taxa Presence Location Description Images
  • Gargoyleosaurus
    Gargoyleosaurus
    Gargoyleosaurus is one of the earliest ankylosaurs known from reasonably complete fossil remains. Its skull measures in length, and its total body length is an estimated . It may have weighed as much as...

Morrison Formation
Morrison Formation
The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and limestone and is light grey, greenish...

, Wyoming, USA
The smallest and the earliest well-known ankylosaur. Its skull measures only 29 cm in length, and its total body length is an estimated three to four meters.
  • Mymoorapelta
    Mymoorapelta
    Mymoorapelta is an ankylosaur from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of western Colorado. The taxon is known from portions of a disarticulated skull, parts of three different skeletons and other postcranial remains...

  • Mymoorapelta maysi
  • Morrison Formation
    Morrison Formation
    The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and limestone and is light grey, greenish...

    , Colorado, USA
    A poorly known early ankylosaurian.

    Theropods

    Theropods of the Tithonian
    Taxa Presence Location Description Images
    • Allosaurus
      Allosaurus
      Allosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period . The name Allosaurus means "different lizard". It is derived from the Greek /allos and /sauros...

    Morrison Formation
    Morrison Formation
    The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and limestone and is light grey, greenish...

    , USA
    The most common and most highly studied theropod dinosaur.
  • Archaeopteryx
    Archaeopteryx
    Archaeopteryx , sometimes referred to by its German name Urvogel , is a genus of theropod dinosaur that is closely related to birds. The name derives from the Ancient Greek meaning "ancient", and , meaning "feather" or "wing"...

  • Solnhofen
    Solnhofen
    Solnhofen is a municipality in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in the region of Franconia in the Land of Bavaria in Germany. It lies within the Altmühl valley....

    , Germany
    The late Jurassic is notable for the first appearance in the fossil record of bird
    Bird
    Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

    s, in the form of Archaeopteryx, found in limestone quarries in Germany.
  • Ceratosaurus
    Ceratosaurus
    Ceratosaurus meaning "horned lizard", in reference to the horn on its nose , was a large predatory theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period , found in the Morrison Formation of North America, in Tanzania and Portugal...

  • Morrison Formation
    Morrison Formation
    The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and limestone and is light grey, greenish...

    , USA
    Fossils are less common than those of Allosaurus.

    †Basal Ornithischians

    Basal
    Basal (phylogenetics)
    In phylogenetics, a basal clade is the earliest clade to branch in a larger clade; it appears at the base of a cladogram.A basal group forms an outgroup to the rest of the clade, such as in the following example:...

     ornithischia
    Ornithischia
    Ornithischia or Predentata is an extinct order of beaked, herbivorous dinosaurs. The name ornithischia is derived from the Greek ornitheos meaning 'of a bird' and ischion meaning 'hip joint'...

    ns of the Tithonian
    Taxa Presence Location Description Images
    • Fruitadens
      Fruitadens
      Fruitadens is a genus of heterodontosaurid dinosaur. The name means "Fruita tooth", in reference to Fruita, Colorado , where its fossils were first found. It is known from partial skulls and skeletons from at least four individuals of differing biological ages, found in Tithonian rocks of the...

    Fruita, Colorado, USA Fruitadens was a heterodontosaurid
    Heterodontosauridae
    Heterodontosauridae is a family of early ornithischian dinosaurs that were likely among the most basal members of the group...

     and the smallest known ornithischian dinosaur, weighing less than 2 pound (0.90718474 kg) and measuring a little over 2 foot (0.6096 m) in length. It is also one of the latest surviving heterodontosaurids known.

    †Ceratopsians

    Ceratopsia
    Ceratopsia
    Ceratopsia or Ceratopia is a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs which thrived in what are now North America, Europe, and Asia, during the Cretaceous Period, although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Jurassic. The earliest known ceratopsian, Yinlong downsi, lived between 161.2 and 155.7...

     of the Tithonian
    Taxa Presence Location Description Images
    • Chaoyangsaurus
      Chaoyangsaurus
      Chaoyangsaurus was a marginocephalian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of China...

    ? Chaoyang area, Liaoning, China One of the earliest ceratopsians
  • Xuanhuaceratops
  • Hebei, China A member of the family Chaoyangsauridae, it was one of the earliest ceratopsians

    †Ornithopods

    Ornithopoda of the Tithonian
    Taxa Presence Location Description Images
    • Camptosaurus
      Camptosaurus
      Camptosaurus is a genus of plant-eating, beaked ornithischian dinosaurs of the Late Jurassic period of western North America. The name means 'flexible lizard', ....

    Kimmeridgian to ?Berriasian
    Berriasian
    In the geological timescale, the Berriasian is an age or stage of the Early or Lower Creteceous. It is the oldest or lowest subdivision in the entire Cretaceous. It spanned between 145.5 ± 4.0 Ma and 140.2 ± 3.0 Ma...

    Wyoming, USA; England; France Camptosaurus could be more than 7.9 meters long (26 ft), and 2.0 meters tall (6.7 ft) at the hips. They had heavy bodies but, as well as walking on four legs (quadrupedal), could also rear up to walk on two legs (bipedal). This genus is probably closely related to the ancestor of the later iguanodontid and hadrosaurid dinosaurs. It probably ate cycads with its beak.

    • Draconyx
      Draconyx
      Draconyx is a genus of dinosaur from the Late Jurassic. It was an ornithopod which lived in what is now Portugal. It was found in Lourinhã, in 1991, and described by Octávio Mateus and Miguel Telles Antunes in 2001.-Etymology:...

    Lourinhã
    Lourinhã
    Lourinhã is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 147.2 km² and a total population of 24,601 inhabitants. The seat of the municipality is the village of Lourinhã, with a population of 8,800 inhabitants....

    , Portugal
    A camptosaurid iguanodont
    Iguanodont
    Iguanodonts were herbivorous dinosaurs that lived from the mid-Jurassic to Late Cretaceous. Some members include Camptosaurus, Callovosaurus, Iguanodon, Ouranosaurus, and the hadrosaurids or "duck-billed dinosaurs". Iguanodonts were one of the first groups of dinosaurs to be found...

  • Drinker
    Drinker
    Drinker was a genus of hypsilophodont dinosaur from the late Jurassic period of North America. Although based on good remains, it remains obscure due to a lack of post-naming publications.-Description:...

  • Dryosaurus
    Dryosaurus
    Dryosaurus is a genus of an ornithopod dinosaur that lived in the Late Jurassic period. It was an iguanodont . Fossils have been found in the western United States, and were first discovered in the late 19th century...

  • Othnielia
    Othnielia
    Othnielia is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur, named after its original describer, Professor Othniel Charles Marsh, an American paleontologist of the 19th century...

  • Othnielosaurus
    Othnielosaurus
    Othnielosaurus is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur that lived about 155 to 148 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic-age Morrison Formation of the western United States. It is named in honor of famed paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, and was formerly assigned to the genus...


  • †Plesiosauria

    Plesiosaurs of the Tithonian
    Taxa Presence Location Description Images
    • Simolestes
      Simolestes
      Simolestes is an extinct genus of pliosaurs that lived in the Middle to Late Jurassic. Three species are currently known:*Simolestes keileni from the Bajocian of France...

       indicus

    †Pterosauria

    Pterosaurs of the Tithonian
    Taxa Presence Location Description Images
    • Rhamphorhynchus
      Rhamphorhynchus
      Rhamphorynchus may refer to:*Rhamphorhynchus, a genus of pterosaur*Rhamphorhynchus, a former monotypic genus of orchid, containing only the species now called Aspidogyne mendoncae...

       muensteri
    Solnhofen
    Solnhofen
    Solnhofen is a municipality in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in the region of Franconia in the Land of Bavaria in Germany. It lies within the Altmühl valley....

    , Germany

    • Anurognathus
      Anurognathus
      Anurognathus is a genus of small pterosaur that lived approximately 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic Period ....

       ammoni
    Solnhofen
    Solnhofen
    Solnhofen is a municipality in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in the region of Franconia in the Land of Bavaria in Germany. It lies within the Altmühl valley....

    , Germany
    Short head with pin-like teeth, short tail but from a normally long tailed group "Rhamphorhynchoidea
    Rhamphorhynchoidea
    The Rhamphorhynchoidea forms one of the two suborders of pterosaurs and represent an evolutionary grade of primitive members of this group of flying reptiles. This suborder is paraphyletic in relation to the Pterodactyloidea, which arose from within the Rhamphorhynchoidea, not from a more distant...

    "
  • Pterodactylus
    Pterodactylus
    Pterodactylus is a genus of pterosaurs, whose members are popularly known as pterodactyls. It was the first to be named and identified as a flying reptile...

     antiquus
  • Solnhofen
    Solnhofen
    Solnhofen is a municipality in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in the region of Franconia in the Land of Bavaria in Germany. It lies within the Altmühl valley....

    , Germany
  • Ctenochasma
    Ctenochasma
    Ctenochasma is a genus of Late Jurassic pterosaur belonging to the suborder pterodactyloidea. Three species are currently recognized: C. roemeri , C. taqueti, and C. elegans...

  • Solnhofen
    Solnhofen
    Solnhofen is a municipality in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in the region of Franconia in the Land of Bavaria in Germany. It lies within the Altmühl valley....

    , Germany
  • Comodactylus
    Comodactylus
    Comodactylus is a genus of "rhamphorhynchoid" pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming, USA, named for a single wing metacarpal....

     ostromi
  • Morrison Formation
    Morrison Formation
    The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and limestone and is light grey, greenish...

    , Wyoming
    Wyoming
    Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

    , USA
    Known only from an intact fourth metacarpal, 57.5 millimetres long
  • Cycnorhamphus
    Cycnorhamphus
    Cycnorhamphus is a genus of ctenchasmatoid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Late Jurassic of France and Germany.In 1855 a fossil in a plate of shale from the Tithonian, found near Nusplingen in Württemberg, holotype GPIT "Orig. Quenstedt 1855, Taf...

     suevicus
  • Solnhofen
    Solnhofen
    Solnhofen is a municipality in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in the region of Franconia in the Land of Bavaria in Germany. It lies within the Altmühl valley....

    , Germany
  • Dermodactylus
    Dermodactylus
    Dermodactylus was a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming, USA...

     montanus
  • Morrison Formation
    Morrison Formation
    The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and limestone and is light grey, greenish...

    , Wyoming
    Wyoming
    Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

    , USA
  • Germanodactylus
    Germanodactylus
    Germanodactylus is a genus of dsungaripteroid pterodactyloid pterosaur from Late Jurassic-age rocks of Germany, including the Solnhofen limestone. Its specimens were long thought to pertain to Pterodactylus. Its head crest is a distinctive feature.-Description:Germanodactylus is described as...

  • Solnhofen
    Solnhofen
    Solnhofen is a municipality in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in the region of Franconia in the Land of Bavaria in Germany. It lies within the Altmühl valley....

    , Germany
  • Gnathosaurus
    Gnathosaurus
    Gnathosaurus is a genus of ctenochasmatid pterosaur known from a single species, G. subulatus, described in 1833. This pterosaur had an estimated wingspan of about 1.7 meters. The slender, 28-cm-long skull had up to 130 needle-like teeth arranged laterally around the spoon-shaped tip...

     subulatus
  • Solnhofen
    Solnhofen
    Solnhofen is a municipality in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in the region of Franconia in the Land of Bavaria in Germany. It lies within the Altmühl valley....

    , Germany
  • Herbstosaurus
    Herbstosaurus
    Herbstosaurus is the name given to a genus of pterosaur that lived during the Jurassic period, in what is now Argentina.In 1969 Argentine paleobotanist Rafael Herbst in the province Neuquén at Picun Leufú dug up a piece of sandstone holding a number of disarticulated bones of a small reptile...

     pigmaeus
  • Neuquén
    Neuquén Province
    Neuquén is a province of Argentina, located in the west of the country, at the northern end of Patagonia. It borders Mendoza Province to the north, Rio Negro Province to the southeast, and Chile to the west...

    , Argentina

    †Stegosaurs

    Stegosaurs of the Tithonian
    Taxa Presence Location Description Images
    • Stegosaurus
      Stegosaurus
      Stegosaurus is a genus of armored stegosaurid dinosaur. They lived during the Late Jurassic period , some 155 to 150 million years ago in what is now western North America. In 2006, a specimen of Stegosaurus was announced from Portugal, showing that they were present in Europe as well...

    Kimmeridgian
    Kimmeridgian
    In the geologic timescale, the Kimmeridgian is an age or stage in the Late or Upper Jurassic epoch or series. It spans the time between 155.7 ± 4 Ma and 150.8 ± 4 Ma . The Kimmeridgian follows the Oxfordian and precedes the Tithonian....

     to Early Tithonian
    Morrison Formation
    Morrison Formation
    The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States, which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone and limestone and is light grey, greenish...

    , Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, USA
    Averaging around 9 metres (30 ft) long and 4 metres (14 ft) tall, the quadrupedal Stegosaurus is one of the most easily identifiable dinosaurs, due to the distinctive double row of kite-shaped plates rising vertically along its arched back and the two pairs of long spikes extending horizontally near the end of its tail.

    †Sauropoda

    Sauropoda
    Sauropoda
    Sauropoda , or the sauropods , are an infraorder of saurischian dinosaurs. They had long necks, long tails, small heads , and thick, pillar-like legs. They are notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes the largest animals to have ever lived on land...

     of the Tithonian
    Taxa Presence Location Description Images
    • Apatosaurus
      Apatosaurus
      Apatosaurus , also known by the popular but scientifically deprecated synonym Brontosaurus, is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived from about 154 to 150 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period . It was one of the largest land animals that ever existed, with an average length of and a...


    • Brachiosaurus
      Brachiosaurus
      Brachiosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Jurassic Morrison Formation of North America. It was first described by Elmer S. Riggs in 1903 from fossils found in the Grand River Canyon of western Colorado, in the United States. Riggs named the dinosaur Brachiosaurus altithorax,...

  • Diplodocus
    Diplodocus
    Diplodocus , or )is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a Neo-Latin term derived from Greek "double" and "beam", in reference to its double-beamed chevron bones...

  • Mamenchisaurus
    Mamenchisaurus
    Mamenchisaurus was a plant-eating four-legged dinosaur, known for its remarkably long neck which made up half its total length. It is known from numerous species which ranged in time from 160 to 145 million years ago, from the Oxfordian to Tithonian ages of the late Jurassic Period of...


  • †Thalattosuchians

    Thalattosuchians of the Tithonian
    Taxa Presence Location Description Images
    • Dakosaurus
      Dakosaurus
      Dakosaurus is an extinct genus within the family Metriorhynchidae that lived during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. It was large, with teeth that were serrated and compressed lateromedially . The genus was established by Friedrich August von Quenstedt in 1856 for an isolated tooth named...

    1. Dakosaurus maximus
    2. Dakosaurus andiniensis

    A large genus of metriorhynchid, that was a high order predator which fed on other marine reptiles
    1. The type species
      Type species
      In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

       from Western Europe of the Late Jurassic (Early Tithonian).
    2. Argentina
      Argentina
      Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

       of the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous (Early Tithonian), knicknamed "Godzilla
      Godzilla
      is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...

      ".


    • Geosaurus
      Geosaurus
      Geosaurus is an extinct genus of marine crocodyliform within the family Metriorhynchidae that lived during the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. Geosaurus was a carnivore that spent much, if not all, its life out at sea...

    1. G. giganteus
    2. G. gracilis
    3. G. suevicus:
    4. G. saltillense:
    5. G. vignaudi:
    6. G. araucanensis:
  • Western Europe
  • Western Europe
  • Western Europe
  • Mexico
  • Mexico
  • Argentina

  • A relatively small metriorhynchid genus. No known species of Geosaurus attained lengths in excess of 3 meters (10 feet). There were multiple Geosaurus species alive during the Tithonian.
    1. The type species
      Type species
      In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

       from Western Europe of the Late Jurassic (Early Tithonian).
    2. Western Europe of the Late Jurassic (Early Tithonian). Was originally the type species of the genus Rhacheosaurus.
    3. Western Europe of the Late Jurassic (Early Tithonian)
    4. Mexico
      Mexico
      The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

       of the Late Jurassic (Early Tithonian)
    5. Mexico
      Mexico
      The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

       of the Late Jurassic (Middle Tithonian)
    6. Argentina
      Argentina
      Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

       of the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous (Early Tithonian)
    • Machimosaurus
      Machimosaurus
      Machimosaurus is an extinct genus of teleosaurid crocodyliform from the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous . The type species, Machimosaurus hugii, was found in France. Other fossils have been found in Austria, England, Germany, Portugal and Switzerland...

  • Metriorhynchus
    Metriorhynchus
    Metriorhynchus is an extinct genus of marine crocodyliform that lived in the oceans during the Middle to Late Jurassic. Metriorhynchus was named by the German palaeontologist Christian von Meyer in 1830. Metriorhynchus was a carnivore that spent much, if not all, its life out at sea...

  • M. potens
    An opportunistic carnivore
    Carnivore
    A carnivore meaning 'meat eater' is an organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue, whether through predation or scavenging...

     that fed on fish
    Fish
    Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

    , belemnites and other marine animals and possible carrion. Metriorhynchus grew to an average adult length of 3 meters (9.6 feet).
    • Steneosaurus
      Steneosaurus
      Steneosaurus is an extinct genus of teleosaurid crocodyliform from the Early Jurassic to Early Cretaceous . Fossil specimens have been found in England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Morocco.-Species:...


    †Belemnites

    Belemnites of the Tithonian
    Taxa Presence Location Description Images
    • Produvalia
      Produvalia
      Produvalia is a genus of belemnite, an extinct group of cephalopods....


    Literature

    ; (2004): A Geologic Time Scale 2004, Cambridge University Press
    Cambridge University Press
    Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...

    .; 1865: Die Tithonische Etage, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft, 1865: pp 535-558.

    External links

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