Diplocaulus magnicornis

Diplocaulus is an extinct genus of lepospondyl amphibians which lived from the Late Carboniferous to the Late Permian of North America and Africa. Diplocaulus is by far the largest and best-known of the lepospondyls, characterized by a distinctive boomerang-shaped skull. Remains attributed to Diplocaulus have been found from the Late Permian of Morocco and represent the youngest-known occurrence of a lepospondyl.

Diplocaulus magnicornis

Camelops · 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
DiplocaulusPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At most 16 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 290.1 Mya and 274.4 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Permian — about 15 of 15 occurrencesPermian291–290 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences290–289 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences289–289 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences289–288 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences288–288 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences288–287 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences287–287 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences287–286 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences286–286 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences286–285 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences285–284 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences284–284 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences284–283 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences283–283 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences283–282 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences282–282 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences282–281 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences281–281 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences281–280 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences280–279 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences279–279 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences279–278 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences278–278 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences278–277 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences277–277 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences277–276 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences276–276 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences276–275 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences275–274 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences274–274 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences290.6 Mya273.9 Mya

15 occurrences of Diplocaulus magnicornis 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

15 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

5 formations

Arroyo — 33.77°N, 99.22°WArroyo — 33.70°N, 99.27°WArroyo — 33.97°N, 99.20°WArroyo — 33.76°N, 99.14°WWellington — 36.16°N, 97.34°WWellington — 36.35°N, 97.43°WVale — 33.60°N, 99.25°WVale — 32.13°N, 99.75°WHennessey — 34.19°N, 98.79°WGarber — 36.66°N, 97.69°W

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The named rock units Diplocaulus magnicornis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Diplocaulus magnicornis and its relatives

Permian

Where Diplocaulus magnicornis and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

86 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Diplocaulus magnicornis, 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 15 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 Diplocaulus magnicornis

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

Synchrotron Imaging scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Diplocaulus magnicornis · AMNH:FARB:4511

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itDiplocaulus through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1882