Rhinesuchus

Rhinesuchus is a large temnospondyl. Remains of the genus are known from the Permian of the South African Karoo Basin's Tapinocephalus and Cistecephalus assemblage zones, both belonging to the Beaufort Group. The skull of Rhinesuchus had a flat triangular shape with blunt snout similar to some of the other large temnospondyls, and had a palate filled with small sharp teeth, suggesting that it hunted fish. Also, the small eyes were on top of the head suggesting that it approached its prey from below.

Rhinesuchus

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
RhinesuchidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 7.9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 259.857 Mya to 251.902 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 264.28 Mya to 247 Mya.

Permian — about 7 of 10 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 3 of 10 occurrencesEarly TriassicMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 10 occurrences265–264 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences264–264 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences264–263 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences263–262 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences261–261 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences261–260 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences259–258 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences258–257 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences257–257 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences256–256 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences256–255 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences255–254 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences254–254 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences253–252 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences252–251 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences251–251 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences251–250 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences250–250 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences250–249 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences249–248 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences248–248 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences248–247 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences259.857 Mya251.902 Mya264.8 Mya246.5 Mya

10 occurrences of Rhinesuchus 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

10 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

4 formations

Abrahamskraal — 32.70°S, 21.75°EAbrahamskraal — 32.97°S, 22.02°ERaniganj — 24.10°N, 81.77°EBalfour — 31.95°S, 23.77°ETeekloof — 32.08°S, 22.11°E

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The named rock units Rhinesuchus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Rhinesuchus and its relatives

Permian

Where Rhinesuchus and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

18 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Rhinesuchus, 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

6 references

Each of the 10 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 Rhinesuchus

Credit
Dmitry Bogdanov
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itRhinesuchidae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Broom 1908