Tritylodon

Tritylodon is an extinct genus of tritylodonts, one of the most advanced group of cynodont therapsids. They lived in the Early Jurassic and possibly Late Triassic periods along with dinosaurs. They also shared many characteristics with mammals, and were once considered mammals because of overall skeleton construction. That was changed due to them retaining the vestigial amniote jawbones and a different skull structure. Tritylodonts are now regarded as non-mammalian synapsids.

Tritylodon

ДиБгд · 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
TritylodontidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 35 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 227.3 Mya and 192.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Triassic — about 2 of 25 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 23 of 25 occurrencesEarly Jurassic228–227 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences227–226 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences226–224 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences224–223 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences223–222 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences222–221 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences221–220 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences220–218 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences218–217 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences217–216 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences216–215 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences215–214 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences214–212 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences212–211 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences211–210 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences210–209 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences209–208 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences208–207 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences207–205 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences205–204 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences204–203 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences203–202 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences202–201 Mya — about 2 occurrences201–199 Mya — about 3 occurrences199–198 Mya — about 3 occurrences198–197 Mya — about 3 occurrences197–196 Mya — about 3 occurrences196–195 Mya — about 3 occurrences195–193 Mya — about 3 occurrences193–192 Mya — about 1 occurrence228 Mya192.2 Mya

25 occurrences of Tritylodon on record, most of them in the Early Jurassic. 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

25 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

2 formations

Elliot — 31.92°S, 21.52°EElliot — 28.98°S, 27.37°EElliot — 29.22°S, 27.34°EElliot — 29.23°S, 27.35°EElliot — 29.13°S, 27.33°EElliot — 29.08°S, 27.37°EElliot — 28.68°S, 28.32°EElliot — 28.55°S, 28.38°EElliot — 28.42°S, 28.50°EElliot — 28.53°S, 28.50°EElliot — 28.62°S, 28.27°EElliot — 29.03°S, 27.48°EElliot — 29.07°S, 27.50°EElliot — 29.80°S, 27.42°EElliot — 30.35°S, 27.75°EElliot — 29.85°S, 27.36°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Tritylodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Tritylodon and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Tritylodon and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

12 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 25 sites for Tritylodon, 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 25 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 content2

Picture of Tritylodon

Credit
ДиБгд
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Tritylodon longaevus · bp:1:5088

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 itTritylodontidae through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1884