Caseidae

Caseidae are an extinct family of basal synapsids that lived from the Late Carboniferous to Middle Permian between about 300 and 265 million years ago. Fossils of these animals come from the south-central part of the United States, and various parts of Europe, with a possible presence in Gondwana based on paleolatitude reconstructions. Caseids show great taxonomic and morphological diversity. The most basal taxa were small insectivorous and omnivorous forms that lived mainly in the Upper Carboniferous and Lower Permian, such as Eocasea, Callibrachion, and Martensius. This type of caseid persists until the middle Permian with Phreatophasma. During the early Permian, the clade is mainly represented by many species that adopted a herbivorous diet. Some have evolved into gigantic forms that can reach 6–7 metres (20–23 ft) in length, such as Cotylorhynchus hancocki and Alierasaurus ronchii, making them the largest Permian synapsids. Caseids are considered important components of early terrestrial ecosystems in vertebrate history because the numerous herbivorous species in this family are among the first terrestrial tetrapods to occupy the role of primary consumer. The caseids experienced a significant evolutionary radiation at the end of the early Permian, becoming, with the captorhinid eureptiles, the dominant herbivores of terrestrial ecosystems in place of the edaphosaurids and diadectids.

Caseidae

Ryan Somma · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
CaseasauriaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 185 million years on record.

The record covers at least 298.9 Mya to 113.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 358.86 Mya to 100.5 Mya.

Devonian — about 0 of 60 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 2 of 60 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 55 of 60 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 1 of 60 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 60 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 1 of 60 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 60 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 60 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 60 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 60 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 60 occurrences364–355 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences355–346 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences346–337 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences337–328 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences328–319 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences319–310 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences310–301 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences301–292 Mya — about 5 occurrences292–283 Mya — about 7 occurrences283–274 Mya — about 19 occurrences274–266 Mya — about 20 occurrences266–257 Mya — about 4 occurrences257–248 Mya — about 1 occurrence248–239 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences239–230 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences230–221 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences221–212 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences212–203 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences113–104 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences104–95 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences298.9 Mya113.2 Mya364 Mya95 Mya

60 occurrences of Caseidae 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

60 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

21 formations

San Angelo — 33.62°N, 99.93°WSan Angelo — 33.71°N, 99.92°WSan Angelo — 33.52°N, 99.96°WSan Angelo — 34.10°N, 99.73°WSan Angelo — 33.69°N, 99.95°WChickasha — 35.99°N, 98.32°WChickasha — 36.00°N, 98.36°WChickasha — 35.94°N, 98.21°WChickasha — 35.05°N, 97.73°WCorncockle Sandstone — 55.16°N, 3.44°WArroyo — 33.76°N, 99.23°WArroyo — 33.70°N, 99.27°WM1-M2 — 44.47°N, 2.43°EVale — 33.67°N, 99.58°WVale — 32.13°N, 99.75°WTambach — 50.81°N, 10.62°EChoza — 33.85°N, 99.63°WHennessey — 35.80°N, 97.48°WLudwikowice — 50.57°N, 16.52°EKrasnoshchel' — 64.92°N, 45.67°ECalhoun Shale — 37.99°N, 96.11°WCala del Vino — 40.65°N, 8.19°EMillery — 46.95°N, 4.30°ELa Lieude — 43.62°N, 3.21°ECorumbataí — 23.47°S, 49.33°WLossiemouth Sandstone — 57.70°N, 3.46°WMansfield Red Sandstone — 53.15°N, 1.19°WUnidad Roja Superior — 42.29°N, 1.49°EHillsborough River — 46.53°N, 63.64°WJinju — 35.23°N, 128.12°E

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The named rock units Caseidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Caseidae and its relatives

Permian

Where Caseidae and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

152 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 23 sites for Caseidae, 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

30 references

Each of the 60 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. 18 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Caseidae

Credit
Ryan Somma
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itCaseasauria through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Williston 1911