Milleretta rubidgei

Milleretta is an extinct genus of millerettid stem-group reptile from the Late Permian of what is now South Africa. Fossils have been found in the Balfour Formation. Its only known species is Milleretta rubidgei, although several other species of millerettid have been synonymized with this genus. Milleretta and its close relatives are unique among Paleozoic stem reptiles in that it secondarily closed an upper and lower temporal fenestra during ontogeny.

Milleretta rubidgei

X. Jenkins et al. · 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
MillerettaPBDB

Time the record covers

At most 8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 259.857 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 9 of 9 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 9 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences259–258 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences258–258 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences258–258 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences258–257 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences257–257 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences257–257 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences256–256 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences256–256 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences256–256 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences256–255 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences255–255 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences255–255 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences255–254 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences254–254 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences254–254 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences253–252 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences260.4 Mya251.4 Mya

9 occurrences of Milleretta rubidgei 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

9 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

  • Balfour Formation · Beaufort GroupWestern Cape, Eastern Cape · ZA · 259.857–251.902 Mya7
  • Middleton/Balfour Formation · Beaufort GroupEastern Cape · ZA · 259.857–254.14 Mya1
  • Teekloof Formation · Beaufort GroupWestern Cape · ZA · 259.857–254.14 Mya1
Balfour — 31.95°S, 23.77°EBalfour — 32.05°S, 24.29°EBalfour — 31.87°S, 24.55°EBalfour — 31.86°S, 24.44°EBalfour — 31.91°S, 23.89°EBalfour — 32.15°S, 23.89°EMiddleton/Balfour — 32.25°S, 24.53°ETeekloof — 31.91°S, 23.89°E

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

Milleretta rubidgei and its relatives

Permian

Where Milleretta rubidgei and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

8 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Milleretta rubidgei, 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

4 references

Each of the 9 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 content3

Picture of Milleretta rubidgei

Credit
X. Jenkins et al.
Licence
CC BY 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
Milleretta rubidgei · bp:1:3818

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itMilleretta through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Broom 1938)