Dino card No. 1796 of 2,027

Tholodus

Say it: THOL-oh-duss

Name means: “dome tooth”1

Ate: MeatIchthyosaursMiddle TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Tholodus was a marine reptile that swam in the seas during the Middle Triassic, about 245 to 235 million years ago. It is known mostly from its teeth and jaw bones, so scientists are still piecing together what it looked like.1

Fun fact: this sea reptile swam while dinosaurs walked on land. Everyone calls them dinos, but they were a different branch of reptiles.

Lived

247 to 237 million years ago2

Middle Triassic

Fossils found in

Germany, Italy, Russia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina2

Food

Meat2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Tholodus was first named by Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer in 1851.1

Most Tholodus fossils are just teeth and jaw fragments, making it a rare and mysterious animal.1

Some scientists think Tholodus might be the same as another ichthyosaur called Xinminosaurus from China.1

Tholodus lived in the Middle Triassic period, about 245 to 235 million years ago.1

Its teeth are so unique that even small pieces can be used to identify it.1

Tholodus is part of a group of early ichthyosaurs called Omphalosauridae.2

AI-made picture of Tholodus — An AI-made picture of how Tholodus might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Tholodus
Named by: Von Meyer 18512
Group: Ichthyosaurs
Family / clade: Omphalosauridae2
Classification: Ichthyosauromorpha2
Age of the rocks: 247 to 237 million years ()2
Rock formations: Jena, Karazin, Dont / M. Bivera2
Countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Russia, Italy2
Fossil records: 4 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Tholodus was named by German paleontologist Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer in 1851 based on teeth and jaw fragments found in the Muschelkalk of Germany.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Tholodus is the same as Xinminosaurus from China, or if it is a separate animal.1

Where the facts come from

Tholodus (en.wikipedia.org)
Tholodus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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