Eryopidae

Eryopidae are an extinct family of medium to large sized amphibious temnospondyls that lived from the latest Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) to the early Permian period and inhabited North America and Europe. They were apex predators in the stream and lake habitats they inhabited. Their life cycle consist of a small larvae that grows into a heavily ossified adult. This group are unusual in their variability in their morphology and development.

Eryopidae

Daderot · Public Domain · 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
EryopiformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 26 million years on record.

The record covers at least 303.7 Mya to 277.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 323.4 Mya to 251.902 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 9 of 113 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 104 of 113 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 113 occurrences325–322 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences322–320 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences320–317 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences317–315 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences315–312 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences312–310 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences310–307 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences307–305 Mya — about 1 occurrence305–303 Mya — about 3 occurrences303–300 Mya — about 3 occurrences300–298 Mya — about 6 occurrences298–295 Mya — about 9 occurrences295–293 Mya — about 11 occurrences293–290 Mya — about 14 occurrences290–288 Mya — about 12 occurrences288–285 Mya — about 12 occurrences285–283 Mya — about 10 occurrences283–280 Mya — about 8 occurrences280–278 Mya — about 8 occurrences278–275 Mya — about 9 occurrences275–273 Mya — about 4 occurrences273–270 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences270–268 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences268–265 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences265–263 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences263–260 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences260–258 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences258–255 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences255–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–250 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences303.7 Mya277.3 Mya325 Mya250 Mya

113 occurrences of Eryopidae 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

113 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

41 formations

Arroyo — 33.77°N, 99.22°WArroyo — 33.76°N, 99.14°WArroyo — 33.70°N, 99.27°WArroyo — 33.59°N, 99.26°WBelle Plains — 33.74°N, 98.90°WBelle Plains — 33.69°N, 99.02°WBelle Plains — 33.87°N, 98.84°WVale — 32.94°N, 99.77°WVale — 33.76°N, 99.55°WVale — 33.60°N, 99.25°WVale — 32.13°N, 99.75°WVale — 32.23°N, 99.83°WVale — 33.67°N, 99.78°WWaggoner Ranch — 33.82°N, 98.69°WWaggoner Ranch — 33.73°N, 99.09°WWaggoner Ranch — 33.76°N, 99.14°WAdmiral — 33.62°N, 98.86°WAdmiral — 33.60°N, 98.63°WAdmiral — 33.82°N, 98.69°WArcher City — 33.34°N, 98.39°WArcher City — 33.47°N, 98.76°WArcher City — 33.58°N, 98.65°WArcher City — 33.45°N, 98.78°WArcher City — 33.67°N, 98.69°WPutnam — 33.60°N, 98.63°WCutler — 37.17°N, 109.85°WCutler — 37.03°N, 110.06°WCutler — 38.01°N, 108.04°WCutler — 36.16°N, 106.65°WAbo/Cutler — 35.72°N, 106.78°WAbo/Cutler — 36.18°N, 106.67°WAbo/Cutler — 36.16°N, 106.64°WAbo/Cutler — 34.17°N, 106.75°WWellington — 36.16°N, 97.34°WWellington — 36.74°N, 97.42°WWellington — 36.35°N, 97.43°WEl Cobre Canyon — 36.05°N, 106.05°WEl Cobre Canyon — 36.14°N, 106.62°WGarber — 36.77°N, 97.77°WGarber — 34.30°N, 98.60°WGarber — 36.66°N, 97.69°WPetrolia — 33.69°N, 99.02°WPetrolia — 33.64°N, 98.90°WNocona — 33.68°N, 98.70°WNocona — 33.83°N, 98.09°WNiederhäslich-Schweinsdorf — 51.00°N, 13.65°EArroyo del Agua — 36.12°N, 106.66°WArroyo del Agua — 36.12°N, 106.64°WMuse — 47.03°N, 4.38°EManebach — 48.37°N, 11.52°EOberhof — 50.71°N, 10.72°EOberhof — 50.82°N, 10.59°EAbo — 35.77°N, 106.69°WAbo — 34.64°N, 107.18°WGarber Sandstone — 34.58°N, 98.85°WGarber Sandstone — 34.53°N, 98.89°WAda — 34.93°N, 96.70°WBead Mountain — 34.13°N, 98.62°WGreene — 39.73°N, 80.48°W

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The named rock units Eryopidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 17 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Eryopidae and its relatives

Permian

Where Eryopidae and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

300 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 92 sites for Eryopidae, 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

42 references

Each of the 113 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. 30 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 content1

Picture of Eryopidae

Credit
Daderot
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itEryopiformes through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1882