Trimerorhachis

Trimerorhachis is an extinct genus of dvinosaurian temnospondyl within the family Trimerorhachidae. It is known from the Early Permian of the southwestern United States, with most fossil specimens having been found in the Texas Red Beds. The type species of Trimerorhachis, T. insignis, was named by American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope in 1878. Cope named a second species from Texas, T. mesops, in 1896. The species T. rogersi and T. greggi are also from Texas, and the species T. sandovalensis is from New Mexico.

Trimerorhachis

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
TrimerorhachidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Life habit
amphibiousPBDB, for Temnospondyli
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Temnospondyli
Environment
brackish,freshwater,terrestrialPBDB, for Tetrapoda

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 298.9 Mya to 283.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 303.7 Mya to 251.902 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 1 of 58 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 57 of 58 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 58 occurrences305–303 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences303–301 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences301–299 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences299–298 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences298–296 Mya — about 1 occurrence296–294 Mya — about 1 occurrence294–292 Mya — about 1 occurrence292–290 Mya — about 2 occurrences290–289 Mya — about 5 occurrences289–287 Mya — about 6 occurrences287–285 Mya — about 6 occurrences285–283 Mya — about 6 occurrences283–281 Mya — about 5 occurrences281–280 Mya — about 5 occurrences280–278 Mya — about 5 occurrences278–276 Mya — about 5 occurrences276–274 Mya — about 5 occurrences274–272 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences272–271 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences271–269 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences269–267 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences267–265 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences265–263 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences263–262 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences262–260 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences260–258 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences258–256 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences256–254 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences253–251 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences298.9 Mya283.3 Mya305 Mya251 Mya

58 occurrences of Trimerorhachis 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

58 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

17 formations

Vale — 32.94°N, 99.77°WVale — 33.73°N, 99.56°WVale — 33.76°N, 99.55°WVale — 33.60°N, 99.25°WVale — 32.13°N, 99.75°WVale — 32.98°N, 99.85°WArroyo — 33.77°N, 99.22°WArroyo — 33.70°N, 99.27°WArroyo — 33.59°N, 99.26°WArroyo — 33.73°N, 99.36°WBelle Plains — 33.74°N, 98.90°WBelle Plains — 33.87°N, 98.84°WWellington — 36.16°N, 97.34°WWellington — 36.35°N, 97.43°WWellington — 36.74°N, 97.42°WWellington — 36.30°N, 97.30°WAbo — 35.77°N, 106.69°WAbo — 34.64°N, 107.18°WAbo — 33.07°N, 107.22°WAbo — 34.30°N, 106.54°WAdmiral — 33.62°N, 98.86°WAdmiral — 33.60°N, 98.63°WAdmiral — 33.82°N, 98.69°WGarber Sandstone — 34.53°N, 98.89°WGarber Sandstone — 34.58°N, 98.85°WPetrolia — 33.69°N, 99.02°WPetrolia — 33.64°N, 98.90°WWaggoner Ranch — 33.82°N, 98.69°WWaggoner Ranch — 33.73°N, 99.09°WWaggoner Ranch — 33.76°N, 99.14°WChoza — 33.82°N, 99.56°WLueders — 33.75°N, 99.12°WLueders — 33.75°N, 99.15°WGarber — 36.77°N, 97.77°WGarber — 36.66°N, 97.69°WAbo/Cutler — 35.67°N, 106.74°WAbo/Cutler — 34.17°N, 106.75°WBead Mountain — 34.13°N, 98.62°WHennessey — 34.19°N, 98.79°WNocona — 33.68°N, 98.70°WOread — 38.00°N, 96.19°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Trimerorhachis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Trimerorhachis and its relatives

Permian

Where Trimerorhachis and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

181 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 45 sites for Trimerorhachis, 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

23 references

Each of the 58 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. 11 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 Trimerorhachis

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itTrimerorhachidae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

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