Emydops

Emydops is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsids from the Middle Permian to Late Permian of what is now South Africa. The genus is generally small and herbivorous, sharing the dicynodont synapomorphy of bearing two tusks. In the following years, the genus grew to include fourteen species. Many of these species were erected on the basis of differences in the teeth and the positioning of the frontal and parietal bones. A 2008 study narrowed Emydops down to two species, E. arctatus and the newly described E. oweni.

Emydops

Skye McDavid · CC BY 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
EmydopoideaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 23 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 274.4 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 32 of 32 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 32 occurrences275–274 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences274–273 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences273–273 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences273–272 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences272–271 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences271–270 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences270–269 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences269–269 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences269–268 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences268–267 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences267–266 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences266–266 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences266–265 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences265–264 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences264–263 Mya — about 2 occurrences263–262 Mya — about 2 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 2 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 2 occurrences261–260 Mya — about 2 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 3 occurrences259–258 Mya — about 3 occurrences258–258 Mya — about 3 occurrences258–257 Mya — about 3 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 3 occurrences256–255 Mya — about 3 occurrences255–255 Mya — about 3 occurrences255–254 Mya — about 1 occurrence254–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–252 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences252–251 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences274.9 Mya251.4 Mya

32 occurrences of Emydops 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

32 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

Teekloof — 32.22°S, 21.64°ETeekloof — 32.15°S, 22.73°EAbrahamskraal — 32.97°S, 22.02°EAbrahamskraal — 32.35°S, 22.58°EAbrahamskraal — 32.91°S, 22.03°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 10.57°S, 32.97°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 10.70°S, 33.17°EBalfour — 32.13°S, 24.22°EBalfour — 31.95°S, 23.77°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Emydops has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 18 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Emydops and its relatives

Permian

Where Emydops and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

26 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Emydops, 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

11 references

Each of the 32 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 Emydops

Credit
Skye McDavid
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Emydops arctatus · bp:1:1307

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 itEmydopoidea through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Broom 1912