Chroniosuchia

Chroniosuchia is a group of tetrapods that lived from the Middle Permian to Late Triassic in northern Pangaea in what is now Eurasia, including Laos, Kyrgyzstan, China, Germany and Russia. Chroniosuchians are often thought to be reptiliomorphs, but some recent phylogenetic analyses suggest instead that they are stem-tetrapods. They were all rather short limbed with a strong tail and elongated snout, somewhat resembling modern crocodiles. The group is traditionally considered to be a suborder or order of labyrinthodonts. Chroniosuchians likely had ecological niches as riverside predators, and may have been outcompeted by semiaquatic true reptiles such as phytosaurs in the late Triassic. Most forms bore a heavy armour of scutes along the back, possibly for protection against land born predators like therapsids, or to strengthen the axial skeleton for terrestrial locomotion. Indeed, femoral microanatomy of Chroniosaurus suggests that it was amphibious to terrestrial.

Chroniosuchia

DiBgd · 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
TetrapodaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 24 million years on record.

The record covers at least 264.28 Mya to 239.48 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 274.4 Mya to 227.3 Mya.

Permian — about 51 of 72 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 16 of 72 occurrencesEarly TriassicMiddle Triassic — about 4 of 72 occurrencesMiddle TriassicLate Triassic — about 1 of 72 occurrencesLate Triassic275–274 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences274–272 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences272–270 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences270–269 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences269–267 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences267–266 Mya — about 1 occurrence266–264 Mya — about 3 occurrences264–262 Mya — about 8 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 8 occurrences261–259 Mya — about 9 occurrences259–257 Mya — about 10 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 5 occurrences256–254 Mya — about 2 occurrences254–252 Mya — about 2 occurrences252–251 Mya — about 6 occurrences251–249 Mya — about 4 occurrences249–248 Mya — about 5 occurrences248–246 Mya — about 2 occurrences244–243 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences243–241 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences241–239 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences239–238 Mya — about 2 occurrences238–236 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences236–235 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences235–233 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences233–231 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences231–230 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences230–228 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences228–226 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences264.28 Mya239.48 Mya275.3 Mya226.4 Mya

72 occurrences of Chroniosuchia 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

72 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

32 formations

Poldarsa — 60.53°N, 44.91°EPoldarsa — 60.37°N, 44.08°EPoldarsa — 60.58°N, 45.43°EPoldarsa — 60.59°N, 45.53°EPoldarsa — 60.61°N, 45.62°EMalokinelskaya — 51.47°N, 55.14°EMalokinelskaya — 53.47°N, 52.14°EMalokinelskaya — 52.32°N, 53.65°EMalokinelskaya — 52.50°N, 53.69°EVokhminskaya — 57.88°N, 45.91°EVokhminskaya — 57.31°N, 46.25°EVokhminskaya — 58.00°N, 49.00°EQingtoushan — 39.70°N, 97.74°EShangshihezi — 34.94°N, 112.40°EKutulukskaya — 52.78°N, 53.16°EKutulukskaya — 51.68°N, 54.22°EKutulukskaya — 53.31°N, 52.31°EErfurt — 49.21°N, 9.68°EErfurt — 49.08°N, 9.89°EKutuluk — 51.34°N, 55.76°EKutuluk — 52.07°N, 54.23°EGuodikeng — 44.00°N, 88.83°EGuodikeng — 43.32°N, 88.88°EKulchumovskaya — 51.29°N, 55.66°EKulchumovskaya — 51.66°N, 55.93°ESalarevo — 61.19°N, 46.63°EVyasovka — 51.88°N, 56.29°EPetropavlovka — 50.81°N, 55.24°EMadygen — 40.07°N, 70.22°ELipovskaya — 49.26°N, 43.67°ENadkrasnokamenskaya — 65.12°N, 58.62°EStaritskaya — 52.80°N, 51.77°EIlyinskoe — 55.02°N, 48.83°EMalaya Kinel — 51.86°N, 56.20°ESukhona — 60.60°N, 45.40°EGamskaya — 60.57°N, 48.91°EKamennyi Yar — 52.81°N, 51.70°EPetropavlovskaya — 51.28°N, 55.89°EDonguz — 51.36°N, 55.31°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Chroniosuchia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 18 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Chroniosuchia and its relatives

Permian

Where Chroniosuchia and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

419 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 56 sites for Chroniosuchia, 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

24 references

Each of the 72 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. 12 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 Chroniosuchia

Credit
DiBgd
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Chroniosuchia 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 itTetrapoda through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Tatarinov 1972