Archaeothyris

Archaeothyris is an extinct genus of ophiacodontid synapsid that lived during the Late Carboniferous and is known from Nova Scotia. Dated to 306 million years ago, Archaeothyris, along with a more poorly known synapsid called Echinerpeton, are the oldest undisputed synapsids known. The name means ancient window (Greek), and refers to the opening in the skull, the temporal fenestra, which indicates this is an early synapsid. Protoclepsydrops also from Nova Scotia is slightly older but is known by very fragmentary materials.

Archaeothyris

Uncredited · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
OphiacodontidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 7.2 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 314.6 Mya and 307.4 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Carboniferous — about 3 of 3 occurrencesCarboniferous315–315 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences315–314 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences314–314 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences314–314 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences314–313 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences313–313 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences313–313 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences313–313 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences313–312 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences312–312 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences312–312 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences312–312 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences312–311 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences311–311 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences311–311 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences311–310 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences310–310 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences310–310 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences310–310 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences310–309 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences309–309 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences309–309 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences309–309 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences309–308 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences308–308 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences308–308 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences308–307 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences307–307 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences315.1 Mya306.9 Mya

3 occurrences of Archaeothyris on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

3 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Kladno — 49.71°N, 13.21°E

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The named rock units Archaeothyris has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Archaeothyris and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Archaeothyris and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

91 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Archaeothyris, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 3 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Archaeothyris

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Archaeothyris was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itOphiacodontidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Reisz 1972