Therocephalia

Therocephalia is an extinct group of therapsids from the Permian and Triassic periods. The therocephalians ("beast-heads") are named after their large skulls, which, along with the structure of their teeth, suggest that they were carnivores. Like other non-mammalian synapsids, therocephalians were once described as "mammal-like reptiles". Therocephalia is the group most closely related to the cynodonts, which gave rise to the mammals. Indeed, it had been proposed that therocephalians themselves may have given rise to the cynodonts, and therefore that therocephalians as recognised are paraphyletic in relation to cynodonts and so not a clade. Conventionally, however, Therocephalia is regarded as the sister clade of Cynodontia, together forming the clade Eutheriodontia.

Therocephalia

w:ru:Участник:ДиБгд (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
TherapsidaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 20 million years on record.

The record covers at least 264.28 Mya to 243.43 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 274.4 Mya to 237 Mya.

Permian — about 268 of 344 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 43 of 344 occurrencesEarly TriassicMiddle Triassic — about 33 of 344 occurrencesMiddle TriassicLate Triassic — about 0 of 344 occurrences275–274 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences274–273 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences273–271 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences271–270 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences270–269 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences269–267 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences267–266 Mya — about 1 occurrence266–265 Mya — about 2 occurrences265–263 Mya — about 18 occurrences263–262 Mya — about 28 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 28 occurrences261–260 Mya — about 29 occurrences260–258 Mya — about 34 occurrences258–257 Mya — about 34 occurrences257–256 Mya — about 29 occurrences256–254 Mya — about 28 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 18 occurrences253–252 Mya — about 16 occurrences252–251 Mya — about 15 occurrences251–249 Mya — about 10 occurrences249–248 Mya — about 10 occurrences248–247 Mya — about 9 occurrences247–245 Mya — about 7 occurrences245–244 Mya — about 7 occurrences244–243 Mya — about 8 occurrences243–241 Mya — about 8 occurrences241–240 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences240–239 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences239–238 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences238–236 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences264.28 Mya243.43 Mya275.1 Mya236.3 Mya

344 occurrences of Therocephalia 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

344 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

28 formations

Balfour — 32.15°S, 23.89°EBalfour — 31.96°S, 24.57°EBalfour — 31.91°S, 23.89°EBalfour — 31.87°S, 24.55°EBalfour — 32.04°S, 24.22°EBalfour — 32.05°S, 24.29°EBalfour — 31.95°S, 24.92°EBalfour — 31.95°S, 23.77°EBalfour — 33.00°S, 20.45°EBalfour — 31.72°S, 24.98°EAbrahamskraal — 32.42°S, 22.37°EAbrahamskraal — 32.65°S, 21.52°EAbrahamskraal — 33.11°S, 22.54°EAbrahamskraal — 31.40°S, 23.12°EAbrahamskraal — 32.97°S, 22.02°EAbrahamskraal — 32.35°S, 22.58°EAbrahamskraal — 32.91°S, 22.03°EAbrahamskraal — 32.46°S, 21.86°EAbrahamskraal — 32.89°S, 21.87°EAbrahamskraal — 32.86°S, 22.11°EAbrahamskraal — 32.70°S, 21.75°EBurgersdorp — 31.00°S, 26.33°EBurgersdorp — 31.70°S, 27.23°EBurgersdorp — 31.07°S, 26.33°EBurgersdorp — 30.91°S, 26.11°EBurgersdorp — 30.61°S, 26.62°EBurgersdorp — 30.68°S, 26.70°EBurgersdorp — 30.42°S, 26.83°EBurgersdorp — 28.32°S, 28.70°EBurgersdorp — 30.72°S, 26.65°EBurgersdorp — 30.42°S, 26.27°ETeekloof — 32.23°S, 21.61°ETeekloof — 31.62°S, 23.20°ETeekloof — 31.91°S, 23.89°ETeekloof — 32.39°S, 22.55°ETeekloof — 32.15°S, 22.73°ETeekloof — 31.97°S, 21.69°EUrpalov — 58.15°N, 48.35°ENormandien — 28.55°S, 29.08°ENormandien — 28.27°S, 29.13°EFremouw — 85.22°S, 177.00°WFremouw — 85.13°S, 174.83°WFremouw — 84.28°S, 164.35°EFremouw — 85.22°S, 175.50°WFremouw — 85.22°S, 175.44°WDonguz — 51.42°N, 55.43°EDonguz — 51.55°N, 55.36°EDonguz — 51.36°N, 55.49°EDonguz — 51.36°N, 55.31°EKatberg — 30.50°S, 25.97°EKatberg — 31.18°S, 24.95°EKatberg — 31.84°S, 24.86°EUsili — 10.23°S, 35.05°EUsili — 10.25°S, 35.08°EUsili — 10.20°S, 35.38°EErmaying — 39.68°N, 110.97°EErmaying — 35.20°N, 112.17°EErmaying — 38.82°N, 110.99°EErmaying — 37.29°N, 110.70°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 12.33°S, 32.00°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 10.70°S, 33.21°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 10.58°S, 33.10°ENaobaogou — 40.65°N, 110.43°ENaobaogou — 40.72°N, 110.73°ENaobaogou — 40.71°N, 110.62°EAmanakskaya — 53.37°N, 52.81°EAmanakskaya — 52.66°N, 53.48°EMiddleton/Balfour — 32.25°S, 24.53°EKoonap — 29.97°S, 26.00°EKoonap — 29.00°S, 26.00°EKulchumovskaya — 51.66°N, 55.93°EKulchumovskaya — 51.29°N, 55.66°EPutyatino — 56.21°N, 46.74°EOmingonde — 21.14°S, 16.42°EPetropavlovka — 51.75°N, 55.08°EJiucaiyuan — 43.80°N, 87.57°EHeshanggou — 39.43°N, 110.85°EMiddelton — 32.58°S, 25.14°EKutuluk — 51.34°N, 55.76°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Therocephalia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 178 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Therocephalia and its relatives

Permian

Where Therocephalia and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

404 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 130 sites for Therocephalia, 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

75 references

Each of the 344 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. 63 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 Therocephalia

Credit
w:ru:Участник:ДиБгд (dmitrchel@mail.ru)
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Therocephalia 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 itTherapsida through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Broom 1903)