It is known from skull and postcranial remains found in the Kimmeridge Clay Formation of Dorset and Wiltshire, England, the Virgula Marls of Switzerland[3] and also from Oaxaca, Mexico[2][4] .

Postcranial remains were later discovered from the same quarry as the skull, and then these specimens were recognised as belonging to a new species of Dakosaurus, as D. carpenteri.

The species was named to honour Simon Carpenter, an amateur geologist from Frome in Somerset, who discovered the fossils.

[7] When T. carpenteri was considered a species of Dakosaurus, its relatively long snout and smaller, more numerous teeth were thought to be features retained from more basal metriorhynchids.

[7] Fossil teeth of a similar form were also found in a stratum from the Czech Republic dating to late Valanginian.