Massetognathus

Massetognathus is an extinct genus of plant-eating traversodontid cynodonts. They lived during the Triassic Period about 235 million years ago, and are known from the Chañares Formation in Argentina and the Santa Maria Formation in Brazil.

Massetognathus

Uncredited · 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
TraversodontidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 170 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 241.464 Mya and 72.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Middle Triassic — about 10 of 12 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 1 of 12 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 12 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 12 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 12 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 12 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 12 occurrencesLate Cretaceous245–239 Mya — about 6 occurrences239–233 Mya — about 5 occurrences233–227 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences227–221 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences221–216 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences216–210 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences210–204 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences204–198 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences198–192 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences192–186 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences186–180 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences180–174 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences174–169 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences169–163 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences163–157 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences157–151 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences151–145 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences145–139 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences139–133 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences133–127 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences127–122 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences122–116 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences116–110 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences110–104 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences104–98 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences98–92 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences92–86 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences86–81 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences81–75 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences75–69 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences245 Mya69 Mya

12 occurrences of Massetognathus on record, most of them in the Middle Triassic. 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

12 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

2 formations

Chañares — 29.82°S, 67.82°WChañares — 29.85°S, 67.78°WSanta Maria — 29.57°S, 53.51°WSanta Maria — 29.74°S, 52.45°WSanta Maria — 29.72°S, 53.23°WSanta Maria — 29.67°S, 52.78°WSanta Maria — 29.63°S, 53.37°W

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

Massetognathus and its relatives

Middle Triassic

Where Massetognathus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Triassic.

Found in the same rock

31 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Massetognathus, 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

10 references

Each of the 12 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 content2

Picture of Massetognathus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Massetognathus sp. · pvl:5688

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 itTraversodontidae through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Romer 1967