Acratophorus argentinensis

Acratophorus is an extinct genus of dicynodont that lived during the Anisian age of the Middle Triassic-aged Río Seco de la Quebrada Formation in what is now Argentina. The type species, A. argentinensis, was originally placed in the genus Kannemeyeria by Jose Bonaparte in 1966, and later sometimes referred to Vinceria, before being transferred to a new, distinct genus, Acratophorus, in 2021 by Christian Kammerer and Angi Ordoñez. The species Vinceria vieja was also made a synonym of A. argentinensis in 2021. The holotype is PVL 3645, a partial skeleton discovered probably between the 1930s and the early 1960s near a farm house in Puesto Viejo.

Acratophorus argentinensis

Original made by Karkemish · 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
AcratophorusPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Dicynodontia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 7.9 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 241.464 Mya and 233.6 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Middle Triassic — about 1 of 3 occurrencesMiddle TriassicLate Triassic — about 2 of 3 occurrencesLate Triassic242–241 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences241–241 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences241–241 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences241–240 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences240–240 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences240–240 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences240–240 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences240–239 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences239–239 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences239–239 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences239–238 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences238–238 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences238–238 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences238–238 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences238–237 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences237–237 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences237–237 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences237–236 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences236–236 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences236–236 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences236–235 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences235–235 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences235–235 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences235–235 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences235–234 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences234–234 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences234–234 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences234–233 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences242 Mya233.1 Mya

3 occurrences of Acratophorus argentinensis on record, most of them in the Late 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

3 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

Rio Seco de la Quebrada — 34.88°S, 68.64°WQuebrada de Los Fosiles — 34.85°S, 68.50°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Acratophorus argentinensis and its relatives

Late Triassic

Where Acratophorus argentinensis and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.

Found in the same rock

3 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Acratophorus argentinensis, 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

2 references

Each of the 3 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 Acratophorus argentinensis

Credit
Original made by Karkemish
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Acratophorus argentinensis 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

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 itAcratophorus through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kammerer and Ordoñez 2021