Youngina capensis
Youngina is an extinct genus of small, lizard-like stem-group reptile from the Late Permian Beaufort Group of the Karoo Supergroup of South Africa. Youngina has been the subject of considerable scientific attention due to its basal position within Neodiapsida and its well-preserved skulls, with Youngina seen as providing insight into the plesiomorphic (ancestral) morphology of the last common ancestor of living reptiles.

SeismicShrimp · 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
- YounginaPBDB
- 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.
12 occurrences of Youngina capensis 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
12 occurrences- Permian100%
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
- Balfour Formation · Beaufort Group10
- Teekloof Formation · Beaufort Group1
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The named rock units Youngina capensis 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.
Youngina capensis and its relatives
PermianWhere Youngina capensis and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.
Found in the same rock
19 taxa- Oudenodon bainii3 sites
- Cyonosaurus rubidgei2 sites
- Theriognathus microps2 sites
- Abdalodon diastematicus1 site
- Cynosaurus suppostus1 site
- Dicynodontia1 site
- Dicynodontoides recurvidens1 site
- Ictidosuchoides rubidgei1 site
- Ictidosuchops rubidgei1 site
- Milleretta rubidgei1 site
- Millerinoides acutirostris1 site
- Nanictosaurus kitchingi1 site
- Paragalerhinus rubidgei1 site
- Pareiasaurus serridens1 site
- Pelanomodon moschops1 site
- Pelictosuchus paucidens1 site
- Procynosuchus delaharpeae1 site
- Promoschorhynchus platyrhinus1 site
- Saurorictus australis1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Youngina capensis, 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
8 references- The morphology and relationships of Youngina capensis Broom and Prolacerta broomi Parrington4
- Some new fossil reptiles from the Karoo Beds of South Africa2
- An Aggregation of Juvenile Youngina from the Beaufort Group, Karoo Basin, South Africa1
- A new reptile (Reptilia: Diapsida) from the Upper Permian Daptocephalus zone of South Africa1
- The distribution of the Karroo vertebrate fauna1
- A further contribution to our knowledge of the fossil reptiles of the Karroo1
- New genera and species of tetrapods from the Karroo Beds of South Africa1
- Further evidence on the structure of the Eosuchia1
Each of the 12 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 Youngina capensis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- SeismicShrimp
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Youngina capensis 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, “Youngina”
- 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 itYoungina through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Broom 1914