page_title: Captorhinus
section_title: Palaeoecology
hierarchical_section_title: Captorhinus / Palaeoecology
caption_attribution_description: Identifier: waterreptilesofp1914will Title: Water reptiles of the past and present Year: 1914 (1910s) Authors: Williston, Samuel Wendell, 1851-1918 Subjects: Aquatic reptiles Publisher: Chicago, Ill., The University of Chicago Press Contributing Library: Boston Public Library Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: ion is yet provisional,representing merely the presentstage of our knowedge. The Pro-ganosauria and Protorosauria,including distinctively aquaticreptiles, will be more fullydescribed in the following pages.To give even a brief description ofthe more terrestrial reptiles of this,the earliest known reptilian fauna,would be beyond our purpose; theaccompanying life restorations bythe author of some of the moretypical and better known forms,based upon nearly perfect skele-tons, will suffice. From the reptiles and amphib-ians of the Lower Permian of Texas and New Mexico to theichthyosaurs of the Middle Triassic of California there is acomplete gap in the records of the land life of North America.We do not know what became of all the remarkable animalsof the Permian. There are few traces of their descendants else-where known, unless it be in South Africa. From the Middleand Upper Permian of South Africa and Russia, a marvelous rep-tilian fauna has been made known in recent years. More than a Text Appearing After Image: Fig. 26.—Captorhinus, a cotylosaurreptile from Texas, about one-fourthnatural size. 50 WATER REPTILES OF THE PAST AND PRESENT hundred species of six or seven groups, and at least two orders havebeen described. Of these the Cotylosauria are the continuationof the American order, but include more specialized forms, thePareiasauria and the Procolophonia, all of them, like the moreprimitive American forms, characterized by the imperforatetemporal region. The Therapsida, likewise, seem to be the con-tinuation of the American Theromorpha, so closely allied to themthat it is difficult to draw a distinguishing line between them.On the other hand, these African reptiles merge through theTheriodontia into the mammals in the Triassic. They are all Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: Captorhinus is an extinct genus of captorhinid reptiles that lived during the Permian period. Its remains are known from Oklahoma, Texas, Europe, India, the Pedra de Fogo Formation, Parnaíba Basin, Brazil and the Madumabisa Mudstone, Zambia.
context_section_description: Captorhinus is known from the Admiral, Belle Plains, Clyde, Arroyo, Vale, and possibly the Choza Formations, Lower Permian, of Texas. The genus is also known from the Lower Permian fissure deposits at Richards Spur, Oklahoma, and the Cutler Formation, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico. The morphology of small captorhinids is best known from the vast amount of material collected near Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The majority of bones found belong to the multiple-tooth-rowed captorhinid, Captorhinus aguti. The fossils found are currently in the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (OMNH). Two specimens held in the OMNH that have been part of the diagnostic process of these species are OMNH 52366, an almost complete right maxilla, and OMNH 52367, a partial right dentary. It is uncertain if the two elements belong to the same individual. Another commonly mentioned captorhinid, Labidosaurus hamatus, was found in a Lower Permian geologic group in Texas, called the Clear Fork Group. There is a skull and incomplete postcranial skeleton of Captorhinus in the possession of the American Museum of Natural History. Another significant specimen belongs to the Chicago Museum of Natural History taken from the Richard’s Spur, Oklahoma locality.
caption: Restoration from 1914
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