Proterogyrinidae
Embolomeri is an order of tetrapods or stem-tetrapods that were traditionally interpreted as members of Reptiliomorpha. Embolomeres first evolved in the Early Carboniferous (Mississippian) Period and were the largest and most successful predatory tetrapods of the Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) Period. They were specialized semiaquatic predators with long bodies for eel-like undulatory swimming. Embolomeres are characterized by their vertebral centra, which are formed by two cylindrical segments, the pleurocentrum at the rear and intercentrum at the front. These segments are equal in size. Most other tetrapods have pleurocentra and intercentra which are drastically different in size and shape.

Creator:Dmitry Bogdanov · CC BY 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
- EmbolomeriPBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda
Time the record covers
At most 16 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 330.3 Mya and 315.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
3 occurrences of Proterogyrinidae 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
3 occurrences- Carboniferous100%
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
2 formations
- Bluefield Formation2
- Point Edward Formation · Canso Group1
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Proterogyrinidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Proterogyrinidae and its relatives
CarboniferousWhere Proterogyrinidae and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.
Found in the same rock
8 taxa- Crassigyrinus1 site
- Dipnoi1 site
- Greererpeton burkemorani1 site
- Gyracanthus1 site
- Proterogyrinus scheelei1 site
- Rhipidistia1 site
- Strepsodus1 site
- Tradonis castrensis1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Proterogyrinidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.
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
3 references- New embolomerous tetrapod material and a faunal overview of the Mississippian-aged Point Edward locality, Nova Scotia, Canada1
- Isolated tetrapod remains from the Carboniferous of West Virginia1
- The Carboniferous amphibian Proterogyrinus Scheelei Romer, and the early evolution of tetrapods1
Each of the 3 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 Proterogyrinidae
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Creator:Dmitry Bogdanov
- Licence
- CC BY 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Proterogyrinidae 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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Embolomeri”
- 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 itEmbolomeri through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Romer 1970