Cistecephalus

Cistecephalus is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsid from the Late Permian of southern Africa. It was a small, specialised, burrowing dicynodont, possibly with habits similar to a modern mole. The head was flattened and wedge-shaped, the body long, and the forelimbs very strong, with similarities in structure to the forelimb of modern burrowing mammals.

Cistecephalus

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
CistecephalidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 47 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 298.9 Mya and 251.902 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Carboniferous — about 0 of 45 occurrencesPermian — about 45 of 45 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 45 occurrences300–298 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences298–297 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences297–295 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences295–293 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences293–292 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences292–290 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences290–288 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences288–287 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences287–285 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences285–284 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences284–282 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences282–280 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences280–279 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences279–277 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences277–275 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences275–274 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences274–272 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences272–271 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences271–269 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences269–267 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences267–266 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences266–264 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences264–262 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences261–259 Mya — about 6 occurrences259–257 Mya — about 13 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 13 occurrences256–254 Mya — about 13 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences253–251 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences299.8 Mya251 Mya

45 occurrences of Cistecephalus 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

45 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

3 formations

  • Teekloof Formation · Beaufort GroupEastern Cape, Western Cape, Northern Cape · ZA · 259.857–254.14 Mya4
  • Balfour Formation · Beaufort GroupEastern Cape · ZA · 259.857–254.14 Mya2
  • Usili Formation · Songea GroupRuvuma · TZ · 259.857–254.14 Mya1
Teekloof — 31.62°S, 23.20°ETeekloof — 31.91°S, 23.89°ETeekloof — 31.97°S, 21.69°EBalfour — 31.96°S, 24.57°EBalfour — 32.04°S, 24.22°EUsili — 10.25°S, 35.08°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cistecephalus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 38 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cistecephalus and its relatives

Permian

Where Cistecephalus and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

45 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Cistecephalus, 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

9 references

Each of the 45 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. 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 content1

Picture of Cistecephalus

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cistecephalus 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 itCistecephalidae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1876