Explore this animal in Size of Extinct Animals ↗
286 / Mesozoic
Metriorhynchus
Metriorhynchus superciliosus
Flippers, a downturned tail fin and reduced armor transformed a crocodile relative into a pelagic swimmer.
View original image · 1536 × 1024- Time range
- About 167–155 million years ago
- Final stage
- Late Jurassic
- Geographic range
- Warm European shelf seas and open ocean
01 / DEFINITION & ECOLOGY
What was Metriorhynchus?
Metriorhynchus (Metriorhynchus superciliosus) was an extinct organism known from About 167–155 million years ago, with a range in Warm European shelf seas and open ocean.
Life and ecology
Metriorhynchus was fully marine, streamlined and salt-tolerant, feeding mainly on fish and cephalopods and probably unable to walk ashore.
02 / DISAPPEARANCE
Why did Metriorhynchus disappear?
Turnover among marine predators saw more specialized metriorhynchids appear, but this does not prove that they directly replaced this genus.
03 / EVIDENCE
How do scientists know about Metriorhynchus?
Skeletons, tail vertebrae, limbs and cranial salt-gland spaces constrain its marine restoration.
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