Baphetidae

Baphetidae is an extinct family of stem-tetrapods. Baphetids were large labyrinthodont predators of the Late Carboniferous period of Europe. Fragmentary remains from the Early Carboniferous of Canada have been tentatively assigned to the group. The phylogenetic relationships of baphetids is uncertain; while many studies have placed the group as a close relative of Amniota, other analyses have found Baphetidae to be a more basal clade of early stem tetrapods. Baphetids were among the first of the Carboniferous fossil tetrapods to be found and were originally described in 1850 by John William Dawson. The baphetids have been referred to the family Loxommatidae, but this group was later shown to be a junior synonym of Baphetidae, which was named earlier in 1865. Baphetids are known mainly from skulls; very little postcranial material has been found.

Baphetidae

Dmitry Bogdanov · CC BY-SA 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
BaphetoideaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 20 million years on record.

The record covers at least 330.3 Mya to 309.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 335.9 Mya to 306 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 27 of 27 occurrencesCarboniferous336–335 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences335–334 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences334–333 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences333–332 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences332–331 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences331–330 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences330–329 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences329–328 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences328–327 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences327–326 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences324–323 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences323–322 Mya — about 1 occurrence322–321 Mya — about 1 occurrence321–320 Mya — about 1 occurrence320–319 Mya — about 1 occurrence319–318 Mya — about 3 occurrences318–317 Mya — about 3 occurrences317–316 Mya — about 2 occurrences316–315 Mya — about 1 occurrence315–314 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences314–313 Mya — about 1 occurrence313–312 Mya — about 1 occurrence312–311 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences311–310 Mya — about 1 occurrence310–309 Mya — about 2 occurrences309–307 Mya — about 2 occurrences307–306 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences306–305 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences330.3 Mya309.8 Mya336.5 Mya305.4 Mya

27 occurrences of Baphetidae 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

27 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

8 formations

Middle Coal Measures — 54.49°N, 1.84°WMiddle Coal Measures — 55.87°N, 3.96°WKladno — 49.71°N, 13.21°EEast Kirkton Limestone — 55.95°N, 3.20°WGilmerton Ironstone — 55.83°N, 3.13°WLower Coal Measures — 55.74°N, 3.84°WParrot Coal — 56.20°N, 3.00°WLimestone Coal — 55.88°N, 3.15°WJoggins — 45.70°N, 64.45°W

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The named rock units Baphetidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Baphetidae and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Baphetidae and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

120 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Baphetidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

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

15 references

Each of the 27 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. 3 further references are not listed. 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 Baphetidae

Credit
Dmitry Bogdanov
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Baphetidae 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 itBaphetoidea through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1875