Procynosuchus
Procynosuchus is an extinct genus of cynodonts from the Late Permian. It is considered to be one of the earliest and most basal cynodonts. It was 60 cm (2 ft) long.

Momotarou2012 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
- ProcynosuchidaePBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota
Time the record covers
At least 4.8 million years on record.
The record covers at least 256.8 Mya to 251.902 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 264.28 Mya to 247 Mya.
28 occurrences of Procynosuchus 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
28 occurrencesThese 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
4 formations
- Balfour Formation · Beaufort Group7
- Usili Formation · Songea Group3
- Werra Formation · Zechstein Group1
- Teekloof Formation · Beaufort Group1
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The named rock units Procynosuchus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Procynosuchus and its relatives
PermianWhere Procynosuchus and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.
Found in the same rock
51 taxa- Dinogorgon rubidgei2 sites
- Katumbia parringtoni2 sites
- Moschorhinus kitchingi2 sites
- Theriognathus microps2 sites
- Aloposaurus1 site
- Arctognathus nasuta1 site
- Cistecephalus1 site
- Cistecephalus microrhinus1 site
- Cyonosaurus kitchingi1 site
- Daptocephalus huenei1 site
- Daptocephalus leoniceps1 site
- Dicynodon1 site
- Dicynodon angielczyki1 site
- Dicynodontoides nowacki1 site
- Dicynodontoides recurvidens1 site
- Diictodon1 site
- Euptychognathus bathyrhynchus1 site
- Eutherocephalia1 site
- Galesaurus planiceps1 site
- Geikia locusticeps1 site
- Gorgonopidae1 site
- Gorgonopsia1 site
- Ictidosuchops intermedius1 site
- Ictidosuchops rubidgei1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Procynosuchus, 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
15 references- The distribution of the Karroo vertebrate fauna12
- A Contribution to our Knowledge of the Vertebrates of the Karroo Beds of South Africa3
- New whaitsioids (Therapsida: Therocephalia) from the Teekloof Formation of South Africa and therocephalian diversity during the end Guadalupian extinction1
- Permian Cynodontia (Theromorpha) of Eastern Europe1
- A new record of Procynosuchus delaharpeae (Therapsida: Cynodontia) from the Upper Permian Usili Formation, Tanzania1
- A remarkable assemblage of terrestrial tetrapods from the Zechstein (Upper Permian: Tatarian) near Korbach (northwestern Hesse)1
- A revised classification of cynodonts (Reptilia; Therapsida)1
- The Rubidge Collection of fossil Karroo vertebrates1
- A new type of primitive cynodont1
- Studies of Karroo reptiles: 1. Some small cynodonts1
- Die Theriodontier des ostafrikanischen Ruhuhu-Gebietes in der Tuebinger Sammlung1
- New fossil reptile genera from the Bernard Price Collection1
Each of the 28 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. 3 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 Procynosuchus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Momotarou2012
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Procynosuchus 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 itProcynosuchidae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Broom 1937