Criocephalosaurus

Criocephalosaurus is an extinct genus of tapinocephalian therapsids that lived in Southern Africa during the Guadalupian epoch of the Permian. They are the latest surviving dinocephalians, extending past the Abrahamskraal Formation into the lowermost Poortjie Member of the Teekloof Formation in South Africa. They are also regarded as the most derived of the dinocephalians, alongside Tapinocephalus, and the most abundant in the fossil record.

No picture of Criocephalosaurus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Criocephalosaurus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MoschopinaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 4.5 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 264.28 Mya and 259.857 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Permian — about 3 of 3 occurrencesPermian264–264 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences264–264 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences264–264 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences264–264 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences264–264 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences264–263 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences263–263 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences263–263 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences263–263 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences263–263 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences263–262 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences261–261 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences261–261 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences261–261 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences261–261 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences261–260 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences264.8 Mya259.4 Mya

3 occurrences of Criocephalosaurus 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

3 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

2 formations

Teekloof — 32.39°S, 22.55°ETeekloof — 32.63°S, 22.44°EAbrahamskraal — 32.91°S, 22.03°E

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The named rock units Criocephalosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Criocephalosaurus and its relatives

Permian

Where Criocephalosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

No other named taxon is catalogued from any of those sites.

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Criocephalosaurus, and this reads all of them.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 3 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content0

No picture of Criocephalosaurus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.

Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Criocephalosaurus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Criocephalosaurus 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 itMoschopinae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kammerer and Sidor 2002