Explore this animal in Size of Extinct Animals ↗
324 / Mesozoic
Metoposaurus
Metoposaurus diagnosticus
A broad flat head occupied nearly the full width of its front body.
View original image · 1536 × 1024- Time range
- About 227–215 million years ago
- Final stage
- Late Triassic
- Geographic range
- Seasonal rivers and lakes · Europe
01 / DEFINITION & ECOLOGY
What was Metoposaurus?
Metoposaurus (Metoposaurus diagnosticus) was an extinct organism known from About 227–215 million years ago, with a range in Seasonal rivers and lakes · Europe.
Life and ecology
This giant amphibian ambushed fish and small vertebrates in seasonal water bodies.
02 / DISAPPEARANCE
Why did Metoposaurus disappear?
Drying climates and ecological turnover are possible context for its disappearance; mass-death bonebeds record local drought, not the cause of the genus's extinction.
03 / EVIDENCE
How do scientists know about Metoposaurus?
Bonebeds, skulls and limbs record age, trauma and mass mortality.
04 / SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Check the source record
Use the scientific name to compare taxonomy, occurrence records and the fossil record. Database coverage and classifications may differ.
05 / REVISION HISTORY
How has this record changed?
- Rewrote an extinction cause that presented environmental or faunal turnover as established; it is now given as context the record does not prove.
- Verified authoritative entity sources and added three responsive reconstruction sizes.
- Initial bilingual species record published.
06 / CORRECTIONS & ADDITIONS