Zatracheidae

Zatracheidae is a family of Late Carboniferous and Early Permian temnospondyls known from North America and Europe. Zatracheidids are distinguished by lateral (sideways) bony protuberances of the quadratojugal bone of the skull, and a large opening in the snout called the internarial fontanelle that is bordered by enlarged premaxillae. The skull is flattened, with small orbits or eye sockets set far back. The opening in the snout may have housed a gland for producing a sticky substance so that prey would adhere to the tongue. If so, this indicates that these animals spent a large part of their time on land.

Zatracheidae

Uncredited · 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
RhachitomiPBDB
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 274.4 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 1 of 29 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 28 of 29 occurrencesPermian304–303 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences303–302 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences302–301 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences301–300 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences300–299 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences299–298 Mya — about 1 occurrence298–297 Mya — about 1 occurrence297–296 Mya — about 1 occurrence296–295 Mya — about 1 occurrence295–294 Mya — about 1 occurrence294–293 Mya — about 2 occurrences293–292 Mya — about 2 occurrences292–291 Mya — about 2 occurrences291–290 Mya — about 2 occurrences290–289 Mya — about 2 occurrences289–288 Mya — about 2 occurrences288–287 Mya — about 2 occurrences287–286 Mya — about 2 occurrences286–285 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences285–284 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences284–283 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences283–282 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences282–281 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences281–280 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences280–279 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences279–278 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences278–277 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences277–276 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences276–275 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences275–274 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences298.9 Mya283.3 Mya304.3 Mya273.8 Mya

29 occurrences of Zatracheidae 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

29 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

19 formations

Arroyo — 33.77°N, 99.22°WArroyo — 33.70°N, 99.27°WArroyo — 33.97°N, 99.20°WCutler — 37.03°N, 110.06°WCutler — 36.16°N, 106.65°WCutler — 36.12°N, 106.62°WAbo/Cutler — 36.18°N, 106.67°WAbo/Cutler — 36.16°N, 106.64°WAbo/Cutler — 34.17°N, 106.75°WEl Cobre Canyon — 36.14°N, 106.62°WGreene — 40.06°N, 80.57°WAdmiral — 33.62°N, 98.86°WPutnam — 33.60°N, 98.63°WBelle Plains — 33.74°N, 98.90°WNiederhäslich-Schweinsdorf — 51.00°N, 13.65°EArcher City — 33.58°N, 98.65°WNocona — 33.68°N, 98.70°WPittsburgh — 40.05°N, 80.65°WWashington — 40.05°N, 80.65°WKenilworth Sandstone — 52.38°N, 1.57°WMiddle Letovice — 49.90°N, 13.41°EAbo — 35.77°N, 106.69°WPetrolia — 33.64°N, 98.90°WClyde — 33.77°N, 99.10°WLeukersdorf — 50.85°N, 12.95°E

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The named rock units Zatracheidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Zatracheidae and its relatives

Permian

Where Zatracheidae and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

162 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Zatracheidae, 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

16 references

Each of the 29 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. 4 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 Zatracheidae

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Zatracheidae 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 itRhachitomi through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Williston 1910