Bothriceps fossil map
Where fossils of Bothriceps have been found, shown on the Earth as it looked about 252 million years ago and on today’s map.
Dots are fossil collections recorded in the Paleobiology Database. The “then” view moves today’s fossil sites back to their positions 252 million years ago (the time slice nearest the median age of the fossils) using the Merdith et al. (2021) plate model; positions are approximate. Open on the timeline map →
| Group | Early tetrapods & amphibians |
|---|---|
| Lived | 259.857–250.8 million years ago |
| Periods | Permian, Triassic |
| Family | Brachyopidae |
| Named by | Huxley 1859 |
| Fossil records | 1 occurrences at 1 locations (PBDB) |
| Found in | Australia |
| Rock formations | txn:37146 |
About Bothriceps
Bothriceps is an extinct genus of stereospondyl temnospondyl. It is a member of the infraorder Trematosauria and is the most basal brachyopomorph known. It may be the only brachyopomorph that lies outside the superfamily Brachyopoidea, which includes the families Brachyopidae and Chigutisauridae. It shares several similarities to Keratobrachyops, another basal brachyopomorph, and may be closely related to or even synonymous with it.
The genus was named in 1859 by Thomas Henry Huxley with the description of its type species B. australis from the Early Triassic Upper Parmeener Group of Tasmania, Australia. It was originally assigned to the family Brachyopidae and was not reassigned to a more basal position until 2000, when the clade Brachyopomorpha was constructed to accommodate for it. The genus Bothriceps once included several species, but the only species assigned to it now is the type. Bothriceps major, named in 1909, was reassigned to the family Rhytidosteidae as the type species the genus Trucheosaurus in 1998. The brachyopid Platycepsion wilkinsoni (then referred to as Platyceps wilkinsoni) was reassigned to Bothriceps in 1890 and in 1969, but was placed back within the original genus in 1973.
Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Bothriceps (revision 1354842868), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; introduction excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Ages, family, authority and fossil records: Paleobiology Database, accessed 23 October 2026. Ages are those of the rock layers the fossils were found in. Wikidata: Q4948653.
