Bolosauridae

Bolosauridae is an extinct family of herbivorous, lizard-like reptiles known from the latest Carboniferous (Gzhelian) or earliest Permian (Asselian) to the early Guadalupian epoch of North America, China, Germany, Russia and France.

Bolosauridae

Berman DS, Sumida SS, Henrici AC, Scott D, Reisz RR and Martens T · CC BY 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
BolosauriaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 26 million years on record.

The record covers at least 293.52 Mya to 266.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 303.7 Mya to 259.857 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 0 of 21 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 21 of 21 occurrencesPermian305–303 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences303–302 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences302–300 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences300–298 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences298–297 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences297–295 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences295–294 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences294–292 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences292–291 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences291–289 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences289–288 Mya — about 1 occurrence288–286 Mya — about 1 occurrence286–285 Mya — about 1 occurrence285–283 Mya — about 1 occurrence283–282 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences282–280 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences280–279 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences279–277 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences277–276 Mya — about 1 occurrence276–274 Mya — about 1 occurrence274–273 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences273–271 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences271–270 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences270–268 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences268–267 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences267–265 Mya — about 2 occurrences265–264 Mya — about 1 occurrence264–262 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences261–259 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences293.52 Mya266.9 Mya304.6 Mya259 Mya

21 occurrences of Bolosauridae 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

21 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

12 formations

Belebei — 54.11°N, 54.13°EBelebei — 52.58°N, 54.42°EBelebei — 53.65°N, 53.57°EBelebei — 52.36°N, 55.88°EAdmiral — 33.82°N, 98.69°WAdmiral — 33.62°N, 98.86°WArroyo — 33.70°N, 99.27°WNocona — 33.68°N, 98.70°WTambach — 50.81°N, 10.62°EQingtoushan — 39.70°N, 97.74°EArcher City — 33.58°N, 98.65°WGarber — 36.77°N, 97.77°WMillery — 46.95°N, 4.30°EArroyo del Agua — 36.12°N, 106.66°WInta — 66.03°N, 60.05°EAbo — 34.64°N, 107.18°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Bolosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Bolosauridae and its relatives

Permian

Where Bolosauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

182 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Bolosauridae, 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

16 references

Each of the 21 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. 4 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 Bolosauridae

Credit
Berman DS, Sumida SS, Henrici AC, Scott D, Reisz RR and Martens T
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Bolosauridae 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 itBolosauria through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1878