Tithonian
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The Tithonian is the final stage of the Late Jurassic Epoch. It spans the time between 150.8 ± 4 Ma and 145.5 ± 4 Ma (million years ago). It is followed by the Berriasian stage of the Early Cretaceous Epoch.
The name is unusual in geological stage names because it is derived from Greek mythology. Tithonus was the son of Laomedon of Troy. He fell in love with Eos, the Greek goddess of dawn and finds his place in the stratigraphy because this stage, the Tithonian, finds itself hand in hand with the dawn of the Cretaceous.
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[edit] Vertebrate Fauna
[edit] Thalattosuchians
Thalattosuchia is the name given to a clade of marine crocodylomorphs from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous that had a cosmopolitan distribution.
- Dakosaurus
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- Dakosaurus was a recently discovered metriorhynchid nicknamed "Godzilla." It was a high order predator which fed on other marine reptiles and could attain lengths of 6 meters (about 20 feet) or more.
- Geosaurus Image:Geosaurus BW.jpgGeosaurus suevicus
- 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.
- G. giganteus
- The type species from Western Europe of the Late Jurassic (Early Tithonian).
- G. gracilis
- Western Europe of the Late Jurassic (Early Tithonian). Was originally the type species of the genus Rhacheosaurus.
- G. suevicus:
- Western Europe of the Late Jurassic (Early Tithonian)
- G. saltillense:
- Mexico of the Late Jurassic (Early Tithonian)
- G. vignaudi:
- Mexico of the Late Jurassic (Middle Tithonian)
- G. araucanensis:
- Argentina of the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous (Early Tithonian)
- An opportunistic carnivore that fed on fish, belemnites and other marine animals and possible carrion. Metriorhynchus grew to an average adult length of 3 meters (9.6 feet), although some individuals may have reached lengths rivaling those of large nile crocodiles.
[edit] Invertebrate Fauna
[edit] Belemnites
Belemnites (or belemnoids) are an extinct group of marine cephalopod, very similar in many ways to the modern squid and closely related to the modern cuttlefish. Like them, the belemnites possessed an ink sac, but, unlike the squid, they possessed ten arms of roughly equal length and no tentacles.
[edit] Genera Surviving From the Bajocian
The following genera of Belemnites first appear in Bajocian rocks, but survived to this article's eponymous stage.
- Produvalia
[edit] References
| Jurassic period | ||
|---|---|---|
| Lower/Early Jurassic | Middle Jurassic | Upper/Late Jurassic |
| Hettangian | Sinemurian Pliensbachian | Toarcian | Aalenian | Bajocian Bathonian | Callovian | Oxfordian | Kimmeridgian Tithonian |
de:Tithonium es:Tithoniano fr:Portlandien nl:Tithonien pl:Tyton pt:Tithoniano sh:Tithonij zh:提通階
