Titanosuchus

Titanosuchus is an extinct genus of dinocephalian therapsids that lived in the Middle Permian epoch in South Africa. This genus has only one species, Titanosuchus ferox. Along with its close relatives, Jonkeria and Moschops, Titanosuchus inhabited present-day South Africa around 265 million years ago, in the Late Permian. Titanosuchus is frequently cited as being a carnivore; however, this is based on specimens now assigned to Anteosaurus. Instead, Titanosuchus was likely an omnivorous or herbivorous animal like the related Jonkeria. Titanosuchus is known from fragmentary jaw and postcranial material, which can be distinguished from Jonkeria by the greater length of the limb bones.

Titanosuchus

Creator:Dmitry Bogdanov · CC BY 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
TitanosuchidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 15 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 274.4 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 17 of 17 occurrencesPermian275–274 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences274–274 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences274–273 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences273–273 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences273–272 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences272–272 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences272–271 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences271–271 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences271–270 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences270–270 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences270–269 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences269–269 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences269–268 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences268–268 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences268–267 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences267–267 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences267–266 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences266–266 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences266–265 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences265–265 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences265–264 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences264–264 Mya — about 2 occurrences264–263 Mya — about 2 occurrences263–262 Mya — about 2 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 2 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 2 occurrences261–261 Mya — about 2 occurrences261–260 Mya — about 2 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 2 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences274.9 Mya259.4 Mya

17 occurrences of Titanosuchus 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

17 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

1 formation

Abrahamskraal — 32.97°S, 22.02°EAbrahamskraal — 32.35°S, 22.58°EAbrahamskraal — 32.91°S, 22.03°EAbrahamskraal — 32.70°S, 21.75°EAbrahamskraal — 32.50°S, 22.30°EAbrahamskraal — 32.49°S, 22.17°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Titanosuchus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Titanosuchus and its relatives

Permian

Where Titanosuchus and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

39 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Titanosuchus, 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

3 references

Each of the 17 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 content2

Picture of Titanosuchus

Credit
Creator:Dmitry Bogdanov
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Titanosuchus ferox · NHMUK:PAL:PV OR 49368

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 itTitanosuchidae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1876