Probainognathus

Probainognathus meaning "progressive jaw" is an extinct genus of cynodonts that lived around 235 to 221.5 million years ago, during the Late Triassic in what is now Argentina. Together with the genus Bonacynodon from Brazil, Probainognathus forms the family Probainognathidae. Probainognathus was a relatively small, carnivorous or insectivorous cynodont. Like all cynodonts, it was a relative of mammals, and it possessed several mammal-like features. Like some other cynodonts, Probainognathus had a double jaw joint, which not only included the quadrate and articular bones like in more basal synapsids, but also the squamosal and surangular bones. A joint between the dentary and squamosal bones, as seen in modern mammals, was however absent in Probainognathus.

Probainognathus

Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.ca/ ) · 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
ProbainognathiaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 170 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 241.464 Mya and 72.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Middle Triassic — about 1 of 3 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 1 of 3 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 3 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 3 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 3 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 3 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 3 occurrencesLate Cretaceous245–239 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences239–233 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences233–227 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences227–221 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences221–216 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences216–210 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences210–204 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences204–198 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences198–192 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences192–186 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences186–180 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences180–174 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences174–169 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences169–163 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences163–157 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences157–151 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences151–145 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences145–139 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences139–133 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences133–127 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences127–122 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences122–116 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences116–110 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences110–104 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences104–98 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences98–92 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences92–86 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences86–81 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences81–75 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences75–69 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences245 Mya69 Mya

3 occurrences of Probainognathus 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

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

2 formations

Chañares — 29.85°S, 67.78°WChañares — 29.83°S, 67.82°WSanta Maria — 29.74°S, 52.45°W

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

Probainognathus and its relatives

Late Triassic

Where Probainognathus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.

Found in the same rock

21 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Probainognathus, 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

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 content2

Picture of Probainognathus

Credit
Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.ca/ )
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Probainognathus sp. · imcn:PVSJ 410

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 itProbainognathia through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Romer 1970