Aloposaurus

Aloposaurus is an extinct genus of gorgonopsian therapsids from the Late Permian of South Africa. It was first named by Robert Broom in 1910, and contains the type species A. gracilis, and possibly a second species A. tenuis. This small gorgonopsid had a slender narrow skull only 12 centimetres (4.7 in) long, with a total body length of 60–70 cm (2.0–2.3 ft).

Aloposaurus

Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com ) · CC BY 3.0 · 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
GorgonopsinaePBDB
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 0.2 occurrences254–254 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–252 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences260.4 Mya251.4 Mya

6 occurrences of Aloposaurus 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

2 formations

  • Balfour Formation · Beaufort GroupEastern Cape, Western Cape · ZA · 259.857–251.902 Mya2
  • Usili Formation · Songea GroupRuvuma · TZ · 259.857–254.14 Mya1
Balfour — 31.87°S, 24.55°EBalfour — 31.95°S, 23.77°EUsili — 10.25°S, 35.08°E

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The named rock units Aloposaurus 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.

Aloposaurus and its relatives

Permian

Where Aloposaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

19 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Aloposaurus, 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

5 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 Aloposaurus

Credit
Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com )
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Aloposaurus was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.

MorphoSource 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. Broom 1910