Pelycosauria

Pelycosaur is an older term for basal or primitive Late Paleozoic synapsids, excluding the therapsids and their descendants. Previously, the term mammal-like reptile was used, and Pelycosauria was considered an order, but this is now thought to be incorrect and outdated. The terms stem mammals, protomammals, and basal or primitive synapsids are instead used where needed.

Pelycosauria

angela n. from Washington, DC · 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
Also called
pelycosaurPBDB
Sits inside
SynapsidaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 33 million years on record.

The record covers at least 316.9 Mya to 283.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 318.7 Mya to 274.4 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 7 of 15 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 8 of 15 occurrencesPermian320–318 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences318–317 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences315–313 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences313–312 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences312–310 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences310–309 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences309–307 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences307–306 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences306–304 Mya — about 2 occurrences304–303 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences303–301 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences301–300 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences300–298 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences298–297 Mya — about 1 occurrence297–295 Mya — about 1 occurrence295–293 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences293–292 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences292–290 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences290–289 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences289–287 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences287–286 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences284–283 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences283–281 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences281–280 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences280–278 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences278–277 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences277–275 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences275–274 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences316.9 Mya283.3 Mya319.6 Mya273.5 Mya

15 occurrences of Pelycosauria 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

15 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

6 formations

Cutler — 36.31°N, 106.35°WCutler — 38.04°N, 108.12°WCutler — 38.01°N, 108.04°WStanton — 38.38°N, 95.26°WMattoon — 39.04°N, 88.09°WJoggins — 45.70°N, 64.45°WArcher City — 33.45°N, 98.78°WVale — 32.40°N, 99.66°W

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The named rock units Pelycosauria has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pelycosauria and its relatives

Permian

Where Pelycosauria and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

111 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Pelycosauria, 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 15 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 Pelycosauria

Credit
angela n. from Washington, DC
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pelycosauria 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 itSynapsida through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Cope 1878)