Procolophonidae

Procolophonidae Temporal range: Late Permian–Late Triassic PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Skeleton (top) and life restoration (bottom) of Kapes bentoni (Procolophoninae) scale bar = 1cm
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superfamily:	†Procolophonoidea
Family:	†Procolophonidae Seeley, 1888
Subgroups and Genera
†Coletta †Gomphiosauridion? †Kinelia? †Kitchingnathus †Lasasaurus †Oryporan †Pentacolophon †Phaanthosaurus †Pintosaurus †Sauropareion †Sauropia? †Smilodonterpeton †Sphenosaurus †Suchonosaurus †Spondylolestes? †Tichvinskia †Xenodiphyodon? †Youngetta †Leptopleuroninae †Procolophoninae †Theledectinae
Synonyms
Sclerosauridae Nopcsa, 1923

Procolophonidae is an extinct family of small, lizard-like procolophonian "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.

Ecology

The most primitive procolophonids were likely insectivorous or omnivorous, while more derived members of the clade developed bicusped molars, likely either herbivores 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.

Evolution

Procolophonids radiated in the aftermath of the Permian-Triassic extinction event, adapting to changes in the availability of different food resources. 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.

Phylogeny

The family is defined as all taxa more closely related to Procolophon trigoniceps than to Owenetta rubidgei. In their 2026 description of Pentacolophon, Pinheiro and colleagues included it in an updated version of the phylogenetic matrix of Meade et al. (2024), the latest of several iterations of a dataset focused on procolophonoid relationships. Their parsimony analyses resulted in several unresolved polytomies, especially at the base of Procolophonidae. Using a tip-dated Bayesian analysis (the first such instance published for procolophonids), relationships were substantially better-resolved, albeit with lower node support. These results are displayed in the cladogram below:

References

Sources

• Lambert, David (2001). Dinosaur Encyclopedia. New York: Dorling Kindersley. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-7894-7935-8.

External links

• Introduction to Procolophonoidea

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