Microsauria

Microsauria is an extinct, possibly polyphyletic order of tetrapods from the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods. It is the most diverse and species-rich group of lepospondyls. Recently, Microsauria has been considered paraphyletic, as several other non-microsaur lepospondyl groups such as Lysorophia seem to be nested in it. Microsauria is now commonly used as a collective term for the grade of lepospondyls that were originally classified as members of Microsauria.

Microsauria

Uncredited · 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
LepospondyliPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 96 million years on record.

The record covers at least 323.6 Mya to 227.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 326.9 Mya to 205.7 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 23 of 35 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 8 of 35 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 35 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 35 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 4 of 35 occurrencesLate Triassic329–325 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences325–321 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences321–317 Mya — about 5 occurrences317–313 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences313–308 Mya — about 8 occurrences308–304 Mya — about 6 occurrences304–300 Mya — about 2 occurrences300–296 Mya — about 2 occurrences296–292 Mya — about 1 occurrence292–287 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences287–283 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences283–279 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences279–275 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences275–271 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences271–266 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences266–262 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences241–237 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences237–233 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences233–228 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences228–224 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences224–220 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences220–216 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences216–212 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences212–207 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences207–203 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences323.6 Mya227.3 Mya329 Mya203 Mya

35 occurrences of Microsauria on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

35 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

15 formations

Kladno — 49.71°N, 13.21°EKladno — 49.81°N, 13.39°EJoggins — 45.70°N, 64.45°WChickasha — 35.99°N, 98.32°WChickasha — 35.91°N, 98.15°WHennessey — 34.19°N, 98.79°WHennessey — 35.17°N, 97.37°WSangre de Cristo — 38.45°N, 105.84°WSangre de Cristo — 38.47°N, 105.86°WCumnock — 36.49°N, 79.32°WCumnock — 35.56°N, 79.29°WKinkaid — 37.55°N, 88.97°WLithofacies Association II — 35.87°N, 78.90°WCow Branch — 36.54°N, 79.67°WManning Canyon — 40.41°N, 111.99°WCoolbaun Formation — 52.81°N, 7.20°WDöhlen — 51.02°N, 13.64°EAltenglan — 49.45°N, 7.23°EEskridge — 40.15°N, 95.90°WSlaný — 50.21°N, 13.68°E

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The named rock units Microsauria has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Microsauria and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Microsauria and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

320 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Microsauria, 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

27 references

Each of the 35 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. 15 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 Microsauria

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Microsauria was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itLepospondyli through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Dawson 1863)