Dissorophidae

Dissorophidae is an extinct family of medium-sized temnospondyls that flourished during the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods. The clade is known almost exclusively from North America.

Dissorophidae

Jay Malone from Casselberry, FL, USA · CC BY 2.0 · 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
OlsoniformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Olsoniformes
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Olsoniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 51 million years on record.

The record covers at least 318.6 Mya to 266.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 323.4 Mya to 264.28 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 27 of 98 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 71 of 98 occurrencesPermian325–323 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences323–320 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences320–318 Mya — about 1 occurrence318–316 Mya — about 2 occurrences316–314 Mya — about 2 occurrences314–312 Mya — about 2 occurrences312–310 Mya — about 2 occurrences310–308 Mya — about 4 occurrences308–306 Mya — about 2 occurrences306–304 Mya — about 2 occurrences304–302 Mya — about 3 occurrences302–300 Mya — about 3 occurrences300–298 Mya — about 4 occurrences298–296 Mya — about 5 occurrences296–294 Mya — about 5 occurrences294–292 Mya — about 5 occurrences292–290 Mya — about 5 occurrences290–288 Mya — about 8 occurrences288–286 Mya — about 7 occurrences286–284 Mya — about 5 occurrences284–282 Mya — about 4 occurrences282–279 Mya — about 4 occurrences279–277 Mya — about 4 occurrences277–275 Mya — about 5 occurrences275–273 Mya — about 3 occurrences273–271 Mya — about 1 occurrence271–269 Mya — about 1 occurrence269–267 Mya — about 1 occurrence267–265 Mya — about 3 occurrences265–263 Mya — about 2 occurrences318.6 Mya266.9 Mya325 Mya263 Mya

98 occurrences of Dissorophidae 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

98 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

28 formations

Pottsville — 33.81°N, 87.17°WPottsville — 33.90°N, 87.52°WPottsville — 33.94°N, 87.22°WArroyo — 33.81°N, 99.20°WArroyo — 33.76°N, 99.14°WArroyo — 33.70°N, 99.27°WCutler — 37.17°N, 109.85°WCutler — 38.01°N, 108.04°WCutler — 36.31°N, 106.35°WCutler — 36.16°N, 106.65°WCutler — 36.12°N, 106.62°WBelle Plains — 33.44°N, 98.54°WBelle Plains — 33.74°N, 98.90°WBelle Plains — 33.63°N, 98.95°WEl Cobre Canyon — 36.16°N, 106.66°WEl Cobre Canyon — 36.14°N, 106.62°WAbo — 36.20°N, 106.60°WAbo — 35.77°N, 106.69°WAbo — 34.30°N, 106.54°WAbo/Cutler — 36.16°N, 106.64°WAbo/Cutler — 36.18°N, 106.67°WAdmiral — 33.62°N, 98.86°WAdmiral — 33.82°N, 98.69°WChickasha — 36.00°N, 98.38°WWaggoner Ranch — 33.69°N, 99.02°WWaggoner Ranch — 33.73°N, 99.09°WVale — 33.60°N, 99.26°WVale — 32.13°N, 99.75°WNocona — 33.72°N, 98.34°WArcher City — 33.58°N, 98.65°WBelebei — 54.11°N, 54.13°EBelebei — 57.33°N, 54.97°EPottawatomie — 39.16°N, 94.48°WQingtoushan — 39.70°N, 97.74°EChoza — 33.82°N, 99.56°WPechishchi — 58.64°N, 49.85°ETambach — 50.81°N, 10.62°ECrab Orchard Mountain — 34.55°N, 85.50°WLueders — 33.75°N, 99.15°WAda — 34.93°N, 96.70°WOnaga — 40.48°N, 95.73°WPetrolia — 33.64°N, 98.90°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Dissorophidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 23 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dissorophidae and its relatives

Permian

Where Dissorophidae and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

407 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 56 sites for Dissorophidae, 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

47 references

Each of the 98 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. 35 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 Dissorophidae

Credit
Jay Malone from Casselberry, FL, USA
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Dissorophidae 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 itOlsoniformes through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Boulenger 1902