Pareiasauridae

Pareiasauria is an extinct clade of large, herbivorous reptiles that existed during the Permian period. Pareiasaurs were armoured with osteoderms which covered large areas of the body. They first appeared in southern Pangea during the Middle Permian, before becoming globally distributed during the Late Permian. Pareiasaurs were the largest reptiles of the Permian, some reaching sizes over 1 tonne (2,200 lb), equivalent to the largest contemporary therapsids. Pareiasaurs became extinct in the end-Permian mass extinction event.

Pareiasauridae

p_a_h from United Kingdom · CC BY 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
PareiasauriaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Pareiasauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 5.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 259.857 Mya to 254.14 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 274.4 Mya to 251.902 Mya.

Permian — about 35 of 35 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 35 occurrences275–274 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences274–273 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences273–273 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences273–272 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences272–271 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences271–270 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences270–269 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences269–269 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences269–268 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences268–267 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences267–266 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences266–266 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences266–265 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences265–264 Mya — about 2 occurrences264–263 Mya — about 3 occurrences263–262 Mya — about 3 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 3 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 3 occurrences261–260 Mya — about 3 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 2 occurrences259–258 Mya — about 2 occurrences258–258 Mya — about 2 occurrences258–257 Mya — about 2 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences256–255 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences255–255 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences255–254 Mya — about 1 occurrence254–253 Mya — about 2 occurrences253–252 Mya — about 2 occurrences252–251 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences259.857 Mya254.14 Mya274.9 Mya251.4 Mya

35 occurrences of Pareiasauridae 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

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

10 formations

Shihtienfeng, Shiqianfeng, Sunjiagou — 37.41°N, 110.82°EShihtienfeng, Shiqianfeng, Sunjiagou — 37.43°N, 110.88°EShihtienfeng, Shiqianfeng, Sunjiagou — 39.03°N, 111.11°ESalarevo — 61.19°N, 46.63°EUrpalov — 58.15°N, 48.35°ERio do Rasto — 30.02°S, 54.15°WRio do Rasto — 31.84°S, 54.17°WPoldarsa — 60.58°N, 45.43°EPoldarsa — 60.59°N, 45.53°EPoldarsa — 60.61°N, 45.62°EKutulukskaya — 53.29°N, 53.01°EKutulukskaya — 52.78°N, 53.16°EMalokinelskaya — 51.47°N, 55.14°EMalokinelskaya — 53.47°N, 52.14°EIlyinskoe — 55.02°N, 48.83°EKulchumovskaya — 51.66°N, 55.93°EKutuluk — 52.07°N, 54.23°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Pareiasauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pareiasauridae and its relatives

Permian

Where Pareiasauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

235 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Pareiasauridae, 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

13 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. 1 further reference is 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 Pareiasauridae

Credit
p_a_h from United Kingdom
Licence
CC BY 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 itPareiasauria through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lydekker 1889