Procolophon

Procolophon is a genus of lizard-like procolophonid parareptiles that first appeared in the Early Triassic (Induan) of South Africa, Brazil, and Antarctica. It persisted through the Permian–Triassic extinction event, but went extinct in the beginning of the Early Middle Triassic.

Procolophon

Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com ) · CC BY 2.5 · 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
ProcolophoninaePBDB
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 24 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 24 of 24 occurrencesEarly TriassicMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 24 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences252–251 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences251–251 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences251–251 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences251–251 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences251–251 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences251–250 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences250–250 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences250–250 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences250–250 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences250–250 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences250–249 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences249–249 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences249–249 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences249–249 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences249–249 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences249–248 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences248–248 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences248–248 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences248–248 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences248–248 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences248–247 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences252.4 Mya246.5 Mya

24 occurrences of Procolophon 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

24 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

4 formations

Katberg — 32.11°S, 26.51°EKatberg — 32.29°S, 27.10°EKatberg — 31.60°S, 25.45°EKatberg — 30.50°S, 25.97°EKatberg — 32.00°S, 26.26°EKatberg — 30.59°S, 26.37°ESanga do Cabral — 29.62°S, 54.39°WSanga do Cabral — 29.83°S, 54.23°WSanga do Cabral — 29.62°S, 55.05°WFremouw — 85.22°S, 177.00°WFremouw — 85.22°S, 175.50°WFremouw — 85.13°S, 174.83°WFremouw — 85.05°S, 172.50°ENormandien — 28.27°S, 29.13°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Procolophon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Procolophon and its relatives

Early Triassic

Where Procolophon and its relatives were recorded in the Early Triassic.

Found in the same rock

46 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Procolophon, 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

14 references

Each of the 24 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. 2 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 content2

Picture of Procolophon

Credit
Nobu Tamura ( http://spinops.blogspot.com )
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Procolophon trigoniceps · amnh:farb:30515

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 itProcolophoninae through timeFormations of the Early TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1876