Cacops fossil map
Where fossils of Cacops have been found, shown on the Earth as it looked about 275 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 275 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 | 290.1–274.4 million years ago (Artinskian to Kungurian) |
| Periods | Permian |
| Family | Dissorophidae |
| Named by | Williston 1910 |
| Fossil records | 6 occurrences at 4 locations (PBDB) |
| Found in | United States |
| Rock formations | txn:37017, Vale, Arroyo |
About Cacops
Cacops ("ugly look" for its strange appearance), is a genus of dissorophid temnospondyls from the Kungurian stage of the early Permian of the United States. Cacops is one of the few olsoniforms (dissorophids and the larger trematopids) whose ontogeny is known. Cacops fossils were almost exclusively known from the Cacops Bone Bed of the Lower Permian Arroyo Formation of Texas for much of the 20th century. New material collected from the Dolese Brothers Quarry, near Richards Spur, Oklahoma in the past few decades has been recovered, painting a clearer picture of what the animal looked and acted like.
Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Cacops (revision 1334778512), 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: Q134948.
