Rhinesuchidae

Rhinesuchidae is a family of tetrapods that lived primarily in the Permian period. They belonged to the broad group Temnospondyli, a successful and diverse collection of semiaquatic tetrapods which modern amphibians are probably descended from. Rhinesuchids can be differentiated from other temnospondyls by details of their skulls, most notably the interior structure of their otic notches at the back of the skull. They were among the earliest-diverging members of the Stereospondyli, a subgroup of temnospondyls with flat heads and aquatic habits. Although more advanced stereospondyls evolved to reach worldwide distribution in the Triassic period, rhinesuchids primarily lived in the high-latitude environments of Gondwana during the Guadalupian and Lopingian epochs of the Permian. The taxonomy of this family has been convoluted, with more than twenty species having been named in the past; a 2017 review recognized only eight of them to be valid. While several purported members of this group have been reported to have lived in the Triassic period, most are either dubious or do not belong to the group. However, at least one valid genus of rhinesuchid is known from the early Triassic, a small member known as Broomistega. The most recent formal definition of Rhinesuchidae, advocated by Mariscano et al. (2017) is that of a stem-based clade containing all taxa more closely related to Rhinesuchus whaitsi than to Lydekkerina huxleyi or Peltobatrachus pustulatus. A similar alternate definition is that Rhinesuchidae is a stem-based clade containing all taxa more closely related to Uranocentrodon senekalensis than to Lydekkerina huxleyi, Trematosaurus brauni, or Mastodonsaurus giganteus.

Rhinesuchidae

Uncredited · 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
StereospondyliPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 22 million years on record.

The record covers at least 274.4 Mya to 251.902 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 283.3 Mya to 247 Mya.

Permian — about 24 of 30 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 6 of 30 occurrencesEarly TriassicMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 30 occurrences284–283 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences283–282 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences282–280 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences280–279 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences279–278 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences278–276 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences276–275 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences275–274 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences274–273 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences273–271 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences271–270 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences270–269 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences269–268 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences268–266 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences266–265 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences265–264 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences264–263 Mya — about 2 occurrences263–261 Mya — about 2 occurrences261–260 Mya — about 2 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 2 occurrences259–258 Mya — about 2 occurrences258–256 Mya — about 2 occurrences256–255 Mya — about 2 occurrences255–254 Mya — about 2 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences253–251 Mya — about 2 occurrences251–250 Mya — about 2 occurrences250–249 Mya — about 1 occurrence249–248 Mya — about 1 occurrence248–246 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences274.4 Mya251.902 Mya284 Mya246.3 Mya

30 occurrences of Rhinesuchidae 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

30 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

10 formations

Normandien — 28.27°S, 29.13°ENormandien — 28.55°S, 29.08°ENormandien — 28.33°S, 27.63°ELower Pedra de Fogo — 5.59°S, 42.60°WLower Pedra de Fogo — 5.60°S, 42.08°WRio do Rasto — 26.90°S, 50.44°WRio do Rasto — 24.00°S, 51.11°WAbrahamskraal — 32.49°S, 22.17°EAbrahamskraal — 32.70°S, 21.75°EAbrahamskraal — 32.97°S, 22.02°ETeekloof — 32.08°S, 22.11°ERaniganj — 24.10°N, 81.77°EChiweta Beds — 10.70°S, 34.17°EDamuda Series — 22.47°N, 78.43°EBalfour — 31.95°S, 23.77°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 16.64°S, 27.89°E

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The named rock units Rhinesuchidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Rhinesuchidae and its relatives

Permian

Where Rhinesuchidae and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

64 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Rhinesuchidae, 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

18 references

Each of the 30 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. 6 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 Rhinesuchidae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Rhinesuchidae 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 itStereospondyli through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Watson 1919