Caseodontidae

The Caseodontidae is an extinct family of eugeneodont holocephalans known from the late Paleozoic to earliest Mesozoic of Greenland, Canada and the United States. Members of the group are characterized by a reduced or absent palatoquadrate, elongate upper and mandibular rostra, and bulbous, crushing dentition, including a small symphyseal whorl of teeth on the lower jaw and batteries of teeth fused directly to the neurocranium. Several genera are known from partial or complete body fossils.

Caseodontidae

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
CaseodontoideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Eugeneodontiformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Eugeneodontiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Eugeneodontiformes

Time the record covers

At least 58 million years on record.

The record covers at least 307 Mya to 248.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 315.2 Mya to 247 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 13 of 27 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 6 of 27 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 8 of 27 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 27 occurrences317–314 Mya — about 1 occurrence314–312 Mya — about 3 occurrences312–309 Mya — about 3 occurrences309–307 Mya — about 3 occurrences307–305 Mya — about 2 occurrences305–302 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences262–260 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences260–257 Mya — about 2 occurrences257–255 Mya — about 2 occurrences255–253 Mya — about 1 occurrence253–250 Mya — about 1 occurrence250–248 Mya — about 6 occurrences248–246 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences307 Mya248.6 Mya317 Mya246 Mya

27 occurrences of Caseodontidae 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

Sulphur Mountain — 54.53°N, 120.74°WLinton — 39.72°N, 87.32°WLinton — 40.94°N, 90.27°WStaunton — 39.85°N, 87.30°WMoenkopi — 37.03°N, 113.27°WDennis — 41.14°N, 95.98°WWesterville — 41.14°N, 95.98°WAltamont Limestone — 37.04°N, 95.53°WMinnelusa — 44.22°N, 103.41°W

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The named rock units Caseodontidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Caseodontidae and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Caseodontidae and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

57 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Caseodontidae, 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

10 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. 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 Caseodontidae

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

No 3D scan of Caseodontidae 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 itCaseodontoidea through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zangerl 1981