The Tithonian was introduced in scientific literature by German stratigrapher Albert Oppel in 1865. The name Tithonian 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.
The top of the Tithonian stage (the base of the Berriasian stage and the Cretaceous system) is at the first appearance of fossils of ammonite species Berriasella jacobi in the stratigraphic record.
Subdivision
The Tithonian is often subdivided into Lower/Early, Middle and Upper/Late substages or subages. The Late Tithonian is coeval with the Portlandian stage of British stratigraphy.
The Tithonian stage contains seven ammonite biozones in the Tethys domain, from top to base:
The smallest and the earliest well-known ankylosaur. Its skull measures only 29 cm in length, and its total body length is an estimated three to four meters.
The late Jurassic is notable for the first appearance in the fossil record of birds, in the form of Archaeopteryx, found in limestone quarries in Germany.
Fruitadens was a heterodontosaurid and the smallest known ornithischian dinosaur, weighing less than 2 pounds (0.91 kg) and measuring a little over 2 feet (0.61 m) in length. It is also one of the latest surviving heterodontosaurids known.
Camptosaurus could be more than 7.9 meters long (26 ft), and 2.0 meters tall (6.7 ft) at the hips. They had heavy bodies but, as well as walking on four legs (quadrupedal), could also rear up to walk on two legs (bipedal). This genus is probably closely related to the ancestor of the later iguanodontid and hadrosaurid dinosaurs. It probably ate cycads with its beak.
Averaging around 9 metres (30 ft) long and 4 metres (14 ft) tall, the quadrupedal Stegosaurus is one of the most easily identifiable dinosaurs, due to the distinctive double row of kite-shaped plates rising vertically along its arched back and the two pairs of long spikes extending horizontally near the end of its tail.
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.
The type species from Western Europe of the Late Jurassic (Early Tithonian).
Western Europe of the Late Jurassic (Early Tithonian). Was originally the type species of the genus Rhacheosaurus.
Western Europe of the Late Jurassic (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).
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