Cynognathus crateronotus

Cynognathus is an extinct genus of large-bodied cynodontian therapsids that lived in the Middle Triassic. It is known from a single species, Cynognathus crateronotus. Cynognathus was a predator closely related to mammals and had a southern hemispheric distribution. Fossils have so far been recovered from South Africa, Argentina, Antarctica, and Namibia.

Cynognathus crateronotus

Emőke Dénes · 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
CynognathusPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 4.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 241.464 Mya to 237 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 247 Mya to 233.6 Mya.

Early Triassic — about 0 of 13 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 12 of 13 occurrencesMiddle TriassicLate Triassic — about 1 of 13 occurrencesLate Triassic247–247 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences247–246 Mya — about 1 occurrence246–246 Mya — about 1 occurrence246–245 Mya — about 1 occurrence245–245 Mya — about 1 occurrence245–244 Mya — about 1 occurrence244–244 Mya — about 1 occurrence244–243 Mya — about 1 occurrence243–243 Mya — about 1 occurrence243–242 Mya — about 1 occurrence242–242 Mya — about 1 occurrence242–241 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences237–237 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences237–236 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences236–236 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences236–236 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences236–235 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences235–235 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences235–234 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences234–234 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences241.464 Mya237 Mya247.5 Mya233.1 Mya

13 occurrences of Cynognathus crateronotus on record, most of them in the Middle Triassic. 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

13 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

4 formations

Burgersdorp — 31.70°S, 27.23°EBurgersdorp — 30.91°S, 26.11°EBurgersdorp — 31.00°S, 26.33°EBurgersdorp — 30.68°S, 26.70°ERio Seco de la Quebrada — 34.88°S, 68.64°WNtawere — 10.86°S, 32.99°EManda Beds — 10.30°S, 35.25°E

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

Cynognathus crateronotus and its relatives

Middle Triassic

Where Cynognathus crateronotus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Triassic.

Found in the same rock

15 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Cynognathus crateronotus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

5 references

Each of the 13 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 Cynognathus crateronotus

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

No 3D scan of Cynognathus crateronotus 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 itCynognathus through timeFormations of the Middle TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Seeley 1895