Erpetosuchidae
Erpetosuchidae is an extinct family of pseudosuchian archosaurs. Erpetosuchidae was named by D. M. S. Watson in 1917 to include Erpetosuchus. It includes the type species Erpetosuchus granti from the Late Triassic of Scotland, Erpetosuchus sp. from the Late Triassic of eastern United States and Parringtonia gracilis from the middle Middle Triassic of Tanzania; the group might also include Dyoplax arenaceus from the Late Triassic of Germany, Archeopelta arborensis and Pagosvenator candelariensis from Brazil and Tarjadia ruthae from Argentina.

Zissoudisctrucker · 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
- PseudosuchiaPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Pseudosuchia
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida
Time the record covers
At least 14 million years on record.
The record covers at least 241.464 Mya to 227.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 247 Mya to 205.7 Mya.
5 occurrences of Erpetosuchidae on record, most of them in the Late 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
5 occurrencesThese 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
- Lossiemouth Sandstone Formation1
- New Haven Formation · Chatham Group1
- Manda Beds Formation1
- Santa Maria Formation1
- Chañares Formation · Agua de la Peña Group1
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The named rock units Erpetosuchidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Erpetosuchidae and its relatives
Late TriassicWhere Erpetosuchidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.
Found in the same rock
16 taxa- Brachyrhinodon taylori1 site
- Dicynodontia1 site
- Erpetosuchus1 site
- Erpetosuchus granti1 site
- Hyperodapedon gordoni1 site
- Leptopleuron lacertinum1 site
- Ornithosuchus woodwardi1 site
- Pagosvenator candelariensis1 site
- Parringtonia gracilis1 site
- Pseudosuchia1 site
- Saltopus elginensis1 site
- Scleromochlus taylori1 site
- Stagonolepis robertsoni1 site
- Stenaulorhynchinae1 site
- Stenaulorhynchus1 site
- Thecodontia1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Erpetosuchidae, 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
5 references- The rhynchosaur record, including a new stenaulorhynchine taxon, from the Chañares Formation (upper Ladinian–?lowermost Carnian levels) of La Rioja Province, north-western Argentina1
- A new erpetosuchid (Pseudosuchia, Archosauria) from the Middle–Late Triassic of Southern Brazil1
- Olsen, 20051
- Ein kleiner Pseudosuchier und ein Saurischier aus den ostafrikanischen Mandaschichten [A small pseudosuchian and a saurischian from the East African Manda Beds]1
- Reptiles from the Elgin Sandstone. — Description of two new genera1
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 content1
Picture of Erpetosuchidae
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Zissoudisctrucker
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Erpetosuchidae 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 itPseudosuchia through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Watson 1917