Ericiolacerta parva

Ericiolacerta is an extinct genus of small therocephalian therapsids from the early Triassic of South Africa and Antarctica. Ericiolacerta, meaning "hedgehog lizard", was named by D. M. S. Watson in 1931. The species E. parva is known from the holotype specimen which consists of a nearly complete skeleton found in the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone within the Katberg Formation of the Beaufort Group in South Africa, and from a partial jaw found in the Lower Triassic Fremouw Formation in Antarctica. Ericiolacerta was around 20 centimetres (7.9 in) in length, with long limbs and relatively small teeth. It probably ate insects and other small invertebrates. The therocephalians—therapsids with mammal-like heads—were abundant in Permian times, but only a few made it into the Triassic. Ericiolacerta was one of those. It is possible that they gave rise to the cynodonts, the only therapsid group to survive into post-Triassic times. Cynodonts gave rise to mammals.

Ericiolacerta parva

Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com ) · CC BY 3.0 · 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
EriciolacertaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Therocephalia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 5 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 251.902 Mya and 247 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Permian — about 0 of 3 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 3 of 3 occurrencesEarly TriassicMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 3 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences252–251 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences251–251 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences251–251 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences251–251 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences251–251 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences251–250 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences250–250 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences250–250 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences250–250 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences250–250 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences250–249 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences249–249 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences249–249 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences249–249 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences249–249 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences249–248 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences248–248 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences248–248 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences248–248 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences248–248 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences248–247 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences252.4 Mya246.5 Mya

3 occurrences of Ericiolacerta parva on record, most of them in the Early 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

3 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

3 formations

Normandien — 28.27°S, 29.13°EFremouw — 85.22°S, 177.00°WBalfour — 33.00°S, 20.45°E

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

Ericiolacerta parva and its relatives

Early Triassic

Where Ericiolacerta parva and its relatives were recorded in the Early Triassic.

Found in the same rock

29 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Ericiolacerta parva, 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

3 references

Each of the 3 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 Ericiolacerta parva

Credit
Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com )
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ericiolacerta parva was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itEriciolacerta through timeFormations of the Early TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Watson 1931