Sycosaurus

Sycosaurus is an extinct genus of rubidgeine gorgonopsians from the Wuchiapingian Cistecephalus zone of South Africa. It was medium-sized, about 1.2 m in length. It was first named by Haughton in 1924, and contains two species, S. laticeps and S. nowaki.

Sycosaurus

Christian F. Kammerer · 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
RubidgeinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Gorgonopsia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 259.857 Mya and 251.902 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Permian — about 6 of 6 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 6 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences259–258 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences258–258 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences258–258 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences258–257 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences257–257 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences257–257 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences256–256 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences256–256 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences256–256 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences256–255 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences255–255 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences255–255 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences255–254 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences254–254 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences254–254 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences253–252 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences260.4 Mya251.4 Mya

6 occurrences of Sycosaurus 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

6 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

1 formation

Usili — 10.25°S, 35.08°EUsili — 10.23°S, 35.05°EUsili — 10.20°S, 35.38°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Sycosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sycosaurus and its relatives

Permian

Where Sycosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

24 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Sycosaurus, 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

Each of the 6 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Sycosaurus

Credit
Christian F. Kammerer
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sycosaurus 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 itRubidgeinae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Haughton 1924