Procolophonoidea

Procolophonoidea is an extinct superfamily of procolophonian parareptiles. Members were characteristically small, stocky, and lizard-like in appearance. Fossils have been found worldwide from many continents including Antarctica. The first members appeared during the Late Permian in the Karoo Basin of South Africa.

Procolophonoidea

Marta Zaher, Robert A. Coram, Michael J. Benton · CC BY 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
ParareptiliaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 51 million years on record.

The record covers at least 256.8 Mya to 205.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 298.9 Mya to 174.7 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 0 of 177 occurrencesPermian — about 17 of 177 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 83 of 177 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 39 of 177 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 37 of 177 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 177 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 177 occurrences301–297 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences297–293 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences293–288 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences288–284 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences284–280 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences280–276 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences276–271 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences271–267 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences267–263 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences263–258 Mya — about 4 occurrences258–254 Mya — about 9 occurrences254–250 Mya — about 42 occurrences250–245 Mya — about 56 occurrences245–241 Mya — about 22 occurrences241–237 Mya — about 6 occurrences237–232 Mya — about 5 occurrences232–228 Mya — about 5 occurrences228–224 Mya — about 3 occurrences224–220 Mya — about 3 occurrences220–215 Mya — about 3 occurrences215–211 Mya — about 3 occurrences211–207 Mya — about 3 occurrences207–202 Mya — about 9 occurrences202–198 Mya — about 2 occurrences198–194 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences194–189 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences189–185 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences185–181 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences181–177 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences177–172 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences256.8 Mya205.7 Mya301 Mya172 Mya

177 occurrences of Procolophonoidea on record, most of them in the Early 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

177 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

58 formations

Katberg — 32.11°S, 26.51°EKatberg — 32.20°S, 26.12°EKatberg — 30.47°S, 26.06°EKatberg — 32.29°S, 27.10°EKatberg — 31.60°S, 25.45°EKatberg — 30.50°S, 25.97°EKatberg — 31.18°S, 24.95°EKatberg — 32.00°S, 26.26°EKatberg — 30.59°S, 26.37°EKatberg — 31.50°S, 25.00°EBurgersdorp — 30.68°S, 26.70°EBurgersdorp — 30.62°S, 26.61°EBurgersdorp — 30.91°S, 26.11°EBurgersdorp — 30.42°S, 26.83°EBurgersdorp — 28.18°S, 27.96°EBalfour — 31.73°S, 25.00°EBalfour — 32.06°S, 24.19°EBalfour — 31.87°S, 24.55°EBalfour — 32.05°S, 24.29°EBalfour — 33.00°S, 20.45°ESanga do Cabral — 29.62°S, 54.39°WSanga do Cabral — 29.83°S, 54.23°WSanga do Cabral — 29.62°S, 55.05°WWolfville — 45.14°N, 64.32°WWolfville — 45.32°N, 63.79°WWolfville — 45.30°N, 63.75°WWolfville — 45.22°N, 64.00°WWolfville — 45.40°N, 63.96°WPetropavlovka — 52.03°N, 55.64°EPetropavlovka — 50.81°N, 55.24°EPetropavlovka — 51.39°N, 55.28°ECharkabozh — 65.45°N, 52.11°ECharkabozh — 69.28°N, 49.93°EPassaic — 40.89°N, 74.17°WPassaic — 40.86°N, 74.14°WPassaic — 40.85°N, 74.14°WFremouw — 85.22°S, 177.00°WFremouw — 85.22°S, 175.50°WFremouw — 85.13°S, 174.83°WFremouw — 85.05°S, 172.50°ESanta Maria — 29.77°S, 52.75°WSanta Maria — 29.75°S, 53.00°WSanta Maria — 29.74°S, 54.00°WChinle — 34.68°N, 109.58°WChinle — 37.80°N, 109.54°WChinle — 35.65°N, 111.12°WChinle — 34.44°N, 109.46°WArenarie de Val Gardena — 46.37°N, 11.42°EHeshanggou — 39.68°N, 110.97°EHeshanggou — 39.53°N, 110.98°EHeshanggou — 39.38°N, 111.06°ETimezgadiouine — 31.03°N, 9.01°WTimezgadiouine — 30.82°N, 9.09°WOtter Sandstone — 50.68°N, 3.23°WOtter Sandstone — 50.67°N, 3.27°WErmaying — 39.68°N, 110.97°EErmaying — 37.08°N, 113.00°EErmaying — 38.82°N, 110.99°EErfurt — 49.21°N, 9.68°EErfurt — 49.08°N, 9.89°ETecovas — 33.45°N, 101.17°WLossiemouth Sandstone — 57.72°N, 3.29°WYarenskian — 62.06°N, 49.56°EVokhminskaya — 57.88°N, 45.91°ESolling — 50.45°N, 10.65°ESolling — 50.33°N, 11.03°EMiddle Sakamena — 13.00°S, 49.33°EMiddle Sakamena — 13.32°S, 49.05°EKzylsaiskaya — 52.35°N, 52.66°EKzylsaiskaya — 52.22°N, 53.34°E

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The named rock units Procolophonoidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 34 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 27 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Procolophonoidea and its relatives

Early Triassic

Where Procolophonoidea and its relatives were recorded in the Early Triassic.

Found in the same rock

580 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 107 sites for Procolophonoidea, 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

104 references

Each of the 177 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. 92 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 Procolophonoidea

Credit
Marta Zaher, Robert A. Coram, Michael J. Benton
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Procolophonoidea 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 itParareptilia through timeFormations of the Early TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Romer 1956)