Asaphestera

Asaphestera is an extinct genus of tetrapod of debated affinities, described on the basis of fossils from the Carboniferous of the Joggins locality in Nova Scotia, Canada. It was originally described as an undetermined lepospondyl and subsequently classified as a microsaur within the family Tuditanidae. A study published in 2020 found that specimens referred to Asaphestera represented several unrelated species. Steen (1934)'s original species name Asaphestera platyris was retained for a skull which was re-evaluated as the earliest known synapsid. Some authors continue to support a microsaur classification.

Asaphestera

Antonio R. Mihaila · 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
SynapsidaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 1.8 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 318.7 Mya and 316.9 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Carboniferous — about 1 of 1 occurrenceCarboniferous319–319 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences319–319 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences319–318 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences318–318 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences318–318 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences318–318 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences318–318 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences318–318 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences318–318 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences318–318 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences318–318 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences318–318 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences318–318 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences318–317 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences317–317 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences317–317 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences317–317 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences317–317 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences317–317 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences317–317 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences319.2 Mya316.4 Mya

1 occurrence of Asaphestera on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

1 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

1 formation

Joggins — 45.70°N, 64.45°W

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

Asaphestera and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Asaphestera and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

8 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Asaphestera, 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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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 Asaphestera

Credit
Antonio R. Mihaila
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Asaphestera 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 itSynapsida through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Steen 1934