Cynosaurus

Cynosaurus is an extinct genus of cynodonts. Remains have been found from the Daptocephalus Assemblage Zone in South Africa. Cynosaurus was first described by Richard Owen in 1876 as Cynosuchus suppostus. Cynosaurus has been found in the late Permian period. Cyno- is derived from the Greek word kyon for dog and –sauros in Greek meaning lizard.

A picture published with the record for Cynosaurus. What it shows has not been checked.

Smithsonian Institution · CC0 · via Smithsonian. 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
GalesauridaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 259.857 Mya and 251.902 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Permian — about 5 of 5 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 5 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences259–258 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences258–258 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences258–258 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences258–257 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences257–257 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences257–257 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences256–256 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences256–256 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences256–256 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences256–255 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences255–255 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences255–255 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences255–254 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences254–254 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences254–254 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–252 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences260.4 Mya251.4 Mya

5 occurrences of Cynosaurus 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

5 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

Balfour — 31.96°S, 24.57°EBalfour — 31.95°S, 23.77°ETeekloof — 32.21°S, 21.61°E

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The named rock units Cynosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cynosaurus and its relatives

Permian

Where Cynosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

12 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Cynosaurus, 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

3 references

Each of the 5 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 content2

Picture of Cynosaurus

Source
Smithsonian
Credit
Smithsonian Institution
Licence
CC0 — this site’s default, not the record’s
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Cynosaurus suppostus · bp:1:4469

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 itGalesauridae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Schmidt 1927