Rhachiocephalidae

Rhachiocephalidae is an extinct family of dicynodont therapsids. It includes two genera from the Late Permian of southern Africa, Rhachiocephalus and Kitchinganomodon. Rhachiocephalids were the largest dicynodonts in the Permian, although the kannemeyeriiform dicynodonts of the Late Triassic grew to larger sizes. Rhachiocephalids are also unusual in that they have long, low skulls.

No picture of Rhachiocephalidae was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata, iDigBio and Smithsonian Open Access were searched and had none. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Rhachiocephalidae, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
CryptodontiaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Dicynodontia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

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 25 of 25 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 25 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 1 occurrence259–259 Mya — about 1 occurrence259–259 Mya — about 1 occurrence259–259 Mya — about 1 occurrence259–258 Mya — about 1 occurrence258–258 Mya — about 1 occurrence258–258 Mya — about 1 occurrence258–257 Mya — about 1 occurrence257–257 Mya — about 1 occurrence257–257 Mya — about 1 occurrence257–256 Mya — about 1 occurrence256–256 Mya — about 1 occurrence256–256 Mya — about 1 occurrence256–256 Mya — about 1 occurrence256–255 Mya — about 1 occurrence255–255 Mya — about 1 occurrence255–255 Mya — about 1 occurrence255–254 Mya — about 1 occurrence254–254 Mya — about 1 occurrence254–254 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–252 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences260.4 Mya251.4 Mya

25 occurrences of Rhachiocephalidae 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

25 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

6 formations

Usili — 10.38°S, 35.08°EUsili — 10.30°S, 35.07°EUsili — 10.20°S, 35.38°ETeekloof — 31.91°S, 23.89°ENormandien — 29.03°S, 26.40°EBalfour — 32.06°S, 24.19°EMiddleton/Balfour — 32.25°S, 24.53°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 10.63°S, 33.00°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Rhachiocephalidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Rhachiocephalidae and its relatives

Permian

Where Rhachiocephalidae and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

35 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Rhachiocephalidae, 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

11 references

Each of the 25 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 content0

No picture of Rhachiocephalidae was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata, iDigBio and Smithsonian Open Access were searched and had none.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Rhachiocephalidae, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itCryptodontia through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Maisch 2000)