Pareiasauria

Pareiasauria is an extinct clade of large, herbivorous reptiles that existed during the Permian period. Pareiasaurs were armoured with osteoderms which covered large areas of the body. They first appeared in southern Pangea during the Middle Permian, before becoming globally distributed during the Late Permian. Pareiasaurs were the largest reptiles of the Permian, some reaching sizes over 1 tonne (2,200 lb), equivalent to the largest contemporary therapsids. Pareiasaurs became extinct in the end-Permian mass extinction event.

Pareiasauria

p_a_h from United Kingdom · 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
PareiasauroideaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 5.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 259.857 Mya to 254.14 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 298.9 Mya to 251.902 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 0 of 144 occurrencesPermian — about 144 of 144 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 144 occurrences300–298 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences298–297 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences297–295 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences295–293 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences293–292 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences292–290 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences290–288 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences288–287 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences287–285 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences285–284 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences284–282 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences282–280 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences280–279 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences279–277 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences277–275 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences275–274 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences274–272 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences272–271 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences271–269 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences269–267 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences267–266 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences266–264 Mya — about 5 occurrences264–262 Mya — about 26 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 26 occurrences261–259 Mya — about 22 occurrences259–257 Mya — about 18 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 15 occurrences256–254 Mya — about 13 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 12 occurrences253–251 Mya — about 5 occurrences259.857 Mya – 254.14 Mya299.8 Mya251 Mya

144 occurrences of Pareiasauria 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

144 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

23 formations

Abrahamskraal — 32.33°S, 21.80°EAbrahamskraal — 32.47°S, 21.77°EAbrahamskraal — 32.46°S, 21.86°EAbrahamskraal — 32.82°S, 21.97°EAbrahamskraal — 32.86°S, 22.11°EAbrahamskraal — 32.91°S, 22.03°EAbrahamskraal — 32.90°S, 21.82°EAbrahamskraal — 32.49°S, 22.17°EAbrahamskraal — 32.70°S, 21.75°EAbrahamskraal — 32.44°S, 22.19°EAbrahamskraal — 32.37°S, 22.00°EAbrahamskraal — 32.97°S, 22.02°EShihtienfeng, Shiqianfeng, Sunjiagou — 37.41°N, 110.82°EShihtienfeng, Shiqianfeng, Sunjiagou — 37.43°N, 110.88°EShihtienfeng, Shiqianfeng, Sunjiagou — 39.03°N, 111.11°ESalarevo — 61.19°N, 46.63°ESalarevo — 59.96°N, 43.11°EWerra — 51.26°N, 8.88°EWerra — 51.58°N, 10.62°EWerra — 50.68°N, 10.92°EWerra — 51.54°N, 10.87°EWerra — 51.00°N, 9.95°EWerra — 50.99°N, 9.93°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 10.83°S, 33.17°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 10.57°S, 32.97°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 10.70°S, 33.21°ETeekloof — 32.15°S, 22.01°ETeekloof — 32.31°S, 22.08°ETeekloof — 32.08°S, 22.11°ETeekloof — 31.97°S, 21.69°EBalfour — 32.15°S, 23.89°EBalfour — 32.04°S, 24.22°EBalfour — 32.16°S, 24.55°EBalfour — 31.95°S, 23.77°EUrpalov — 58.15°N, 48.35°ERio do Rasto — 30.02°S, 54.15°WRio do Rasto — 31.84°S, 54.17°WKutulukskaya — 53.29°N, 53.01°EKutulukskaya — 52.78°N, 53.16°EKutulukskaya — 53.31°N, 52.31°EIkakern — 30.83°N, 9.09°WShangshihezi — 34.94°N, 112.40°EPoldarsa — 60.58°N, 45.43°EPoldarsa — 60.59°N, 45.53°EPoldarsa — 60.61°N, 45.62°EMoradi — 18.78°N, 7.20°EMiddleton/Balfour — 32.25°S, 24.53°ECutties Hillock Sandstone — 57.66°N, 3.37°WMalokinelskaya — 51.47°N, 55.14°EMalokinelskaya — 53.47°N, 52.14°EUsili — 10.22°S, 35.08°EUsili — 10.30°S, 35.07°EKutuluk — 51.34°N, 55.76°EKutuluk — 52.07°N, 54.23°EIlyinskoe — 55.02°N, 48.83°EKulchumovskaya — 51.66°N, 55.93°ENaobaogou — 40.66°N, 110.42°EArenarie de Val Gardena — 46.37°N, 11.42°E

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The named rock units Pareiasauria has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 46 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pareiasauria and its relatives

Permian

Where Pareiasauria and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

402 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 61 sites for Pareiasauria, 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

43 references

Each of the 144 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. 31 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 Pareiasauria

Credit
p_a_h from United Kingdom
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pareiasauria 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 itPareiasauroidea through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Seeley 1888)