Tetracynodon

Tetracynodon is an extinct genus of therocephalian. Fossils of Tetracynodon have been found in the Karoo Basin of South Africa. Two species are known: the type species T. tenuis from the Late Permian and the species T. darti from the Early Triassic. Both species were small-bodied and probably fed on insects and small vertebrates. Although Tetracynodon is more closely related to mammals than to reptiles, its braincase is very primitive and more resembles that of modern amphibians and reptiles than of mammals.

Tetracynodon

Богданов dmitrchel@mail.ru · 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
LycideopidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Therocephalia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 13 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 259.857 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 4 of 10 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 6 of 10 occurrencesEarly TriassicMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 10 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences259–258 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences258–258 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences258–257 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences257–257 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences256–256 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences256–255 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences255–255 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences255–254 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences254–254 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences253–252 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences252–251 Mya — about 1 occurrence251–251 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences251–250 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences250–250 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences250–249 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences249–249 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences249–248 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences248–248 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences248–247 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences247–247 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences260.4 Mya246.5 Mya

10 occurrences of Tetracynodon 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

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

3 formations

Normandien — 28.55°S, 29.08°ENormandien — 28.28°S, 29.13°EKatberg — 31.18°S, 24.95°EKatberg — 30.50°S, 25.97°EBalfour — 31.87°S, 24.55°EBalfour — 33.00°S, 20.45°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Tetracynodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Tetracynodon and its relatives

Early Triassic

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

Found in the same rock

27 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Tetracynodon, 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

4 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 Tetracynodon

Credit
Богданов dmitrchel@mail.ru
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Tetracynodon 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 itLycideopidae through timeFormations of the Early TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Broom and Robinson 1948