Brachydectes

Brachydectes is an extinct genus of lysorophian tetrapods that lived from the Late Carboniferous to the Early Permian. It had a very small head and long body, B. elongatus had 1–2 centimetres (0.39–0.79 in) long skull and pre-sacral length up to 150 centimetres (59 in), while B. newberryi, which have proportionally larger skull than B. elongatus, for specimen with 7.6 millimetres (0.30 in) skull roof had estimated total length of 11 centimetres (4.3 in), while the largest skull exceeds 3 centimetres (1.2 in).

Brachydectes

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
MolgophidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 33 million years on record.

The record covers at least 316.9 Mya to 283.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 318.7 Mya to 274.4 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 13 of 51 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 38 of 51 occurrencesPermian320–318 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences318–317 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences317–315 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences315–313 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences310–309 Mya — about 2 occurrences309–307 Mya — about 3 occurrences307–306 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences306–304 Mya — about 1 occurrence304–303 Mya — about 1 occurrence303–301 Mya — about 1 occurrence301–300 Mya — about 1 occurrence300–298 Mya — about 2 occurrences298–297 Mya — about 2 occurrences297–295 Mya — about 2 occurrences295–293 Mya — about 2 occurrences293–292 Mya — about 2 occurrences292–290 Mya — about 2 occurrences290–289 Mya — about 2 occurrences289–287 Mya — about 1 occurrence287–286 Mya — about 1 occurrence286–284 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences284–283 Mya — about 2 occurrences283–281 Mya — about 3 occurrences281–280 Mya — about 3 occurrences280–278 Mya — about 3 occurrences278–277 Mya — about 3 occurrences277–275 Mya — about 3 occurrences275–274 Mya — about 1 occurrence316.9 Mya283.3 Mya319.6 Mya273.5 Mya

51 occurrences of Brachydectes 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

51 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

20 formations

Arroyo — 33.77°N, 99.22°WArroyo — 33.70°N, 99.27°WArroyo — 33.59°N, 99.26°WArroyo — 33.75°N, 99.32°WArroyo — 33.97°N, 99.20°WVale — 33.70°N, 99.60°WVale — 33.78°N, 99.47°WVale — 33.59°N, 99.26°WVale — 32.13°N, 99.75°WGreene — 39.77°N, 80.60°WGreene — 39.70°N, 80.64°WGreene — 39.68°N, 80.71°WGreene — 39.71°N, 80.82°WGreene — 39.06°N, 81.38°WEskridge — 40.14°N, 95.88°WHennessey — 34.19°N, 98.79°WHennessey — 35.17°N, 97.37°WLueders — 33.75°N, 99.12°WLueders — 33.75°N, 99.15°WPittsburgh — 40.04°N, 80.66°WWashington — 39.77°N, 80.99°WWashington — 40.17°N, 80.19°WWellington — 36.16°N, 97.34°WChoza — 33.82°N, 99.56°WCarbondale — 41.27°N, 88.14°WFairmont Shale — 35.16°N, 97.41°WBond — 40.10°N, 87.83°WMiddle Coal Measures — 55.11°N, 1.52°WLower Coal Measures — 53.76°N, 1.71°WCouncil Grove — 39.40°N, 96.41°WUniontown Limestone — 39.58°N, 80.97°WMattoon — 39.04°N, 88.09°WWreford — 38.86°N, 96.11°WSangre de Cristo — 34.64°N, 107.18°W

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The named rock units Brachydectes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Brachydectes and its relatives

Permian

Where Brachydectes and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

145 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 31 sites for Brachydectes, 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

22 references

Each of the 51 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. 10 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 content2

Picture of Brachydectes

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

Synchrotron Imaging scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Brachydectes sp. · AMNH:FARB:6172

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 itMolgophidae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1868