Val Porina (Sasso) (Triassic of Switzerland)

Also known as Valporina; Valle Porina; Monte San Giorgio

Where: Ticino, Switzerland (45.9° N, 8.9° E: paleocoordinates 7.0° N, 21.7° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Ticinites polymorphus ammonoid zone, Mittlere Grenzbitumenzone Member (Besano Formation), Anisian (247.2 - 242.0 Ma)

• The Besano Formation is also known as "Grenzbitumenzone". The holotype of Ticinosuchus comes from the middle Grenzbitumenzone, of upper Anisian age

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: lagoonal or restricted shallow subtidal; dolomite

• "The GBZ was deposited within a largely closed marine basin with restricted water circulation (Zorn 1971, Rieber et Sorbini 1983, Bernasconi, 1994). The basin was enclosed by carbonate platforms. The fine-grained sediments and missing evidence of reworking, the mostly complete preserved vertebrate skeletons which are not oriented indicate that there was at most a weak current at the bottom of the basin and that the sediments were deposited below wave base. The water depth of the basin is estimated to have been 30 to 100 m with a gradual deepening through time. The undisturbed lamination of the GBZ rocks and a lack of autochthonous benthos point out that the basin in which the GBZ generated had a stable stratification of the water column and that the bottom water was almost always anoxic and rich in H2S. The common remains of highly marine animals, primarily pelagic fish, ichthyosaurs, ammonoids, and daonellids prove that the surface waters had normnal salinity and was at least periodically connected to the waters of the Triassic Paleotethys." (translated from Rieber, 2000)

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: adpression

Collected in 1933

Collection methods: quarrying,

Primary reference: B. Krebs. 1965. E. Kuhn-Schnyder und B. Peyer: Die Triasfauna der Tessiner Kalkalpen. XIX. Ticinosuchus ferox nov. gen. nov. sp. [E. Kuhn-Schnyder and B. Peyer: The Triassic fauna of the Ticino Limestone Alps. XIX. Ticinosuchus ferox nov. gen. nov. sp.]. Schweizerische Paläontologische Abhandlungen, Memoires suisses de Paleontologie 81:1-140 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano/M. Carrano]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 105768: authorized by Richard Butler, entered by Richard Butler on 24.02.2011

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Pseudosuchia -
Ticinosuchus ferox n. gen. n. sp.
Ticinosuchus ferox n. gen. n. sp. Krebs 1965 archosaur
PIZ T 2817, articulated skeleton