Aelurosaurus

Aelurosaurus is a small, carnivorous, extinct genus of gorgonopsian therapsids from the Late Permian of South Africa. It was discovered in the Karoo Basin of South Africa, and first named by Richard Owen in 1881. It was named so because it appeared to be an ancestor for cat-like marsupials, but not yet a mammal itself. It contains five species, A. felinus, A. whaitsi, A. polyodon, A. wilmanae, and A.? watermeyeri. A. felinus, the type species, is generally well described with established features, while the other four species are not due to their poorly preserved holotypes.

Aelurosaurus

Uncredited · 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
GorgonopsinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Gorgonopsia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 23 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 274.4 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 14 of 14 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 14 occurrences275–274 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences274–273 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences273–273 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences273–272 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences272–271 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences271–270 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences270–269 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences269–269 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences269–268 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences268–267 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences267–266 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences266–266 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences266–265 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences265–264 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences264–263 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences263–262 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences261–260 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 1 occurrence259–258 Mya — about 1 occurrence258–258 Mya — about 1 occurrence258–257 Mya — about 1 occurrence257–256 Mya — about 1 occurrence256–255 Mya — about 1 occurrence255–255 Mya — about 1 occurrence255–254 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–252 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences252–251 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences274.9 Mya251.4 Mya

14 occurrences of Aelurosaurus 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

14 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

  • Teekloof Formation · Beaufort GroupWestern Cape · ZA · 264.28–254.14 Mya6
  • Abrahamskraal Formation · Beaufort GroupWestern Cape · ZA · 274.4–259.857 Mya3
  • Balfour Formation · Beaufort GroupEastern Cape · ZA · 259.857–251.902 Mya1
  • Middleton/Balfour Formation · Beaufort GroupEastern Cape · ZA · 259.857–254.14 Mya1
Teekloof — 32.15°S, 22.01°ETeekloof — 31.91°S, 23.89°ETeekloof — 32.39°S, 22.55°EAbrahamskraal — 32.35°S, 22.58°EBalfour — 31.87°S, 24.55°EMiddleton/Balfour — 32.25°S, 24.53°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Aelurosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aelurosaurus and its relatives

Permian

Where Aelurosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

11 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Aelurosaurus, 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

4 references

Each of the 14 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 Aelurosaurus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Aelurosaurus felinus · NHMUK:PAL:PV R 339

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 itGorgonopsinae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1881