Explore this animal in Size of Extinct Animals ↗
263 / Paleozoic
Biarmosuchus
Biarmosuchus tener
A light build, long limbs and small skull bosses combine primitive and therapsid features.
View original image · 1536 × 1024- Time range
- About 267 million years ago
- Final stage
- Middle Permian
- Geographic range
- River plains · Ural region, Russia
01 / DEFINITION & ECOLOGY
What was Biarmosuchus?
Biarmosuchus (Biarmosuchus tener) was an extinct organism known from About 267 million years ago, with a range in River plains · Ural region, Russia.
Life and ecology
Biarmosuchus was a medium-sized predator with enlarged canines and limbs held more beneath the body than in earlier synapsids.
02 / DISAPPEARANCE
Why did Biarmosuchus disappear?
Therapsids diversified rapidly, but the later appearance of larger dinocephalians and gorgonopsians does not by itself prove that they replaced biarmosuchians.
03 / EVIDENCE
How do scientists know about Biarmosuchus?
Russian skulls and partial skeletons preserve the temporal opening, teeth and limb girdles.
04 / SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Check the source record
Use the scientific name to compare taxonomy, occurrence records and the fossil record. Database coverage and classifications may differ.
05 / REVISION HISTORY
How has this record changed?
- Rewrote an extinction cause that presented environmental or faunal turnover as established; it is now given as context the record does not prove.
- Verified authoritative entity sources and added three responsive reconstruction sizes.
- Initial bilingual species record published.
06 / CORRECTIONS & ADDITIONS