Titanophoneus

Titanophoneus is an extinct genus of carnivorous dinocephalian therapsid from the Middle Permian. The type species of the genus is Titanophoneus potens. Titanophoneus was a member of the clade of basal dinocephalians known as Anteosauria, comprising the single family Anteosauridae. With a skull length of 50 cm (20 in), T. potens was one of the largest terrestrial predators of the Permian. Phylogenetic models recover Titanophoneus to being closely related to the larger Anteosaurus, with both being members of Anteosaurinae subfamily. Remains of both species of Titanophoneus have been found in the Isheevo Assemblage Zone of Isheevo, Russia.

Titanophoneus

Pavel Bochkov from Moscow, Russia · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
AnteosaurinaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 7.1 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 266.9 Mya and 259.857 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Permian — about 7 of 7 occurrencesPermian267–267 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences267–267 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences267–266 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences266–266 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences266–266 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences266–266 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences266–265 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences265–265 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences265–265 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences265–264 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences264–264 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences264–264 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences264–264 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences264–263 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences263–263 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences263–263 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences263–263 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences263–262 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences261–261 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences261–261 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences261–260 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences267.4 Mya259.4 Mya

7 occurrences of Titanophoneus 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

7 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

2 formations

Amanakskaya — 52.66°N, 53.48°EAmanakskaya — 51.59°N, 54.88°EAmanakskaya — 51.98°N, 55.17°EBolshekinelskaya — 52.44°N, 54.47°E

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The named rock units Titanophoneus 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.

Titanophoneus and its relatives

Permian

Where Titanophoneus and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

19 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Titanophoneus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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 7 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 Titanophoneus

Credit
Pavel Bochkov from Moscow, Russia
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Titanophoneus 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 itAnteosaurinae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Efremov 1940