This article will address Procolophonidae, a topic of great relevance today that has generated extensive debate and questions in different areas. In order to provide a broad and enriching vision of this topic, various aspects will be analyzed that will allow us to understand its importance and impact on society. Through the information presented, it is intended to generate a critical and reflective analysis that contributes to the enrichment of knowledge about Procolophonidae and encourages reflection on its impact on current reality.
Procolophonids Temporal range: Middle Permian - Late Triassic
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Skeleton (top) and life restoration (bottom) of Kapes bentoni (Procolophoninae) scale bar = 1cm | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | †Parareptilia |
Order: | †Procolophonomorpha |
Superfamily: | †Procolophonoidea |
Family: | †Procolophonidae Seeley, 1888 |
Subgroups and Genera | |
Synonyms | |
Procolophonidae is an extinct family of small, lizard-like parareptiles known from the Late Permian to Late Triassic that were distributed across Pangaea, having been reported from Europe, North America, China, South Africa, South America, Antarctica and Australia. The most primitive procolophonids were likely insectiovous or omnivorous, more derived members of the clade developed bicusped molars, and were likely herbivorous feeding on high fiber vegetation or durophagous omnivores. Many members of the group are noted for spines projecting from the quadratojugal bone of the skull, which likely served a defensive purpose as well as possibly also for display. At least some taxa were likely fossorial burrowers. While diverse during the Early and Middle Triassic, they had very low diversity during the Late Triassic, and were extinct by the beginning of the Jurassic.
Below is a cladogram from Ruta et al. (2011):
Procolophonidae | |
Below are three cladograms that follow phylogenetic analyses by Butler et al. (2023). Analysis 1: Strict consensus of 760 most parsimonious trees (MPTs):
Procolophonidae |
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Procolophonidae |
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Analysis 3: Strict consensus of 18 MPTs:
Procolophonidae |
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