Australothyris smithi

Australothyris is an extinct genus of basal procolophonomorph parareptile known from the Middle Permian of Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone, South Africa. The type and only known species is Australothyris smithi. As the most basal member of Procolophonomorpha, Australothyris helped to contextualize the origin of this major parareptile subgroup. It has been used to support the hypotheses that procolophonomorphs originated in Gondwana and ancestrally possess temporal fenestrae, due to its large and fully enclosed temporal fenestra and South African heritage. It also possessed several unique features, including a high tooth number, long postfrontal, small interpterygoid vacuity, and a specialized interaction between the stapes and quadrate.

No picture of Australothyris smithi was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata, iDigBio and Smithsonian Open Access were searched and had none. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Australothyris smithi, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

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

Time the record covers

At most 4.5 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 264.28 Mya and 259.857 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Permian — about 1 of 1 occurrencePermian264–264 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences264–264 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences264–264 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences264–264 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences264–264 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences264–263 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences263–263 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences263–263 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences263–263 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences263–263 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences263–262 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences261–261 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences261–261 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences261–261 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences261–261 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences261–260 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences264.8 Mya259.4 Mya

1 occurrence of Australothyris smithi on record, most of them in the Permian. 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

1 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

Abrahamskraal — 32.11°S, 21.23°E

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The named rock units Australothyris smithi has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Australothyris smithi and its relatives

Permian

Where Australothyris smithi and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

2 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Australothyris smithi, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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 doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content0

No picture of Australothyris smithi was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata, iDigBio and Smithsonian Open Access were searched and had none.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Australothyris smithi, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Australothyris smithi was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itAustralothyris through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Modesto et al. 2009