Sphenacodon ferox

Sphenacodon is an extinct genus of synapsid that lived from about 300 to about 280 million years ago (Ma) during the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian periods. Like the closely related Dimetrodon, Sphenacodon was a carnivorous member of the Eupelycosauria family Sphenacodontidae. However, Sphenacodon had a low crest along its back, formed from blade-like bones on its vertebrae instead of the tall dorsal sail found in Dimetrodon. Fossils of Sphenacodon are known from New Mexico and the Utah–Arizona border region in North America.

Sphenacodon ferox

Smokeybjb · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
SphenacodonPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 18 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 303.7 Mya and 286 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Carboniferous — about 1 of 10 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 9 of 10 occurrencesPermian304–304 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences304–303 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences303–302 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences302–302 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences302–301 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences301–300 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences300–300 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences300–299 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences299–299 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences299–298 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences298–297 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences297–297 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences297–296 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences296–295 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences295–295 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences295–294 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences294–294 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences294–293 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences293–292 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences292–292 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences292–291 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences291–290 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences290–290 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences290–289 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences289–289 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences289–288 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences288–287 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences287–287 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences287–286 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences286–286 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences304.2 Mya285.5 Mya

10 occurrences of Sphenacodon ferox 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

10 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

5 formations

El Cobre Canyon — 36.16°N, 106.66°WEl Cobre Canyon — 36.14°N, 106.62°WAbo/Cutler — 36.18°N, 106.67°WAbo/Cutler — 36.16°N, 106.64°WCutler — 36.16°N, 106.65°WCutler — 36.31°N, 106.35°WAbo — 35.77°N, 106.69°WLaborcita — 33.08°N, 106.08°W

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

Sphenacodon ferox and its relatives

Permian

Where Sphenacodon ferox and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

46 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Sphenacodon ferox, 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

6 references

Each of the 10 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 content1

Picture of Sphenacodon ferox

Credit
Smokeybjb
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sphenacodon ferox was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itSphenacodon through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Marsh 1878