Proterosuchidae

Proterosuchidae is an early family of basal archosauriforms whose fossils are known from the Late Permian and the Early Triassic. The highest diversity of genera is known from European Russia, but fossils are also known from South Africa, India, China, Australia, Brazil and possibly Argentina. The name comes from Greek πρότερο- ("first") and σοῦχος ("crocodile").

Proterosuchidae

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 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
ArchosauriformesPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At least 9.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 256.8 Mya to 247 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 259.857 Mya to 241.464 Mya.

Permian — about 4 of 31 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 26 of 31 occurrencesEarly TriassicMiddle Triassic — about 1 of 31 occurrencesMiddle Triassic260–260 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences259–258 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences258–258 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences258–257 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences252–251 Mya — about 4 occurrences251–251 Mya — about 4 occurrences251–250 Mya — about 3 occurrences250–249 Mya — about 3 occurrences249–249 Mya — about 3 occurrences249–248 Mya — about 3 occurrences248–247 Mya — about 3 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 2 occurrences247–246 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences246–245 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences245–245 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences245–244 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences244–244 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences244–243 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences243–242 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences242–242 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences242–241 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences256.8 Mya247 Mya260.4 Mya241 Mya

31 occurrences of Proterosuchidae 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

31 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

7 formations

Katberg — 32.00°S, 26.26°EKatberg — 29.58°S, 26.67°EKatberg — 28.52°S, 27.02°EKatberg — 30.58°S, 26.33°EKatberg — 30.50°S, 26.00°EKatberg — 31.73°S, 25.30°EKatberg — 31.50°S, 25.00°EKatberg — 32.20°S, 26.13°EBalfour — 31.72°S, 24.98°EBalfour — 33.00°S, 20.45°EJiucaiyuan — 44.08°N, 88.88°EJiucaiyuan — 44.00°N, 88.83°ENormandien — 28.27°S, 29.13°EBulgo Sandstone — 33.73°S, 151.32°EPanchet — 23.65°N, 86.88°EWolfville — 45.40°N, 63.96°W

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The named rock units Proterosuchidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Proterosuchidae and its relatives

Early Triassic

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

Found in the same rock

93 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 23 sites for Proterosuchidae, 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

17 references

Each of the 31 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. 5 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 Proterosuchidae

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Proterosuchidae 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 itArchosauriformes through timeFormations of the Early TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Broom 1906