In Depth Protheriodon is a genus of cynodont that lived in South America during the Triassic and so far is known only from a partial skull. Further Reading - A new non-mammalian cynodont from the Middle Triassic of southern Brazil and its implications for the ancestry of mammals. - The Triassic-Jurassic Terrestrial Transition, New Mexico … Read more
In Depth Brasilitherium is a genus of small insectivorous cynodont that lived in Brazil during the late Triassic. Brasilitherium was named alongside another similar cynodont called Brasilodon. Further Reading - The sister group of mammals: small cynodonts from the Late Triassic of southern Brazil. - Revista Brasileira de Paleontolog�a 5:5-27. - J. F. Bonaparte, A. … Read more
In Depth Whereas Cistecephalus was the ‘Permian mole’, Dicynodon appears to have been the ‘Permian Rabbit’, a title that Dicynodon earned by the large abundance of fossils. This abundance has led to a great many species being named for the genus but as often happens, particularly with extinct animals from the early days of palaeontology, … Read more
In Depth Known from only a partial skull, Galesuchus has in the past been considered to be a dubious genus of gorgonopsid. Further Reading - Phylogeny and evolution of the Gorgonopsia with a special reference to the skull and skeleton of GPIT / IR / 7113 (Aelurognathus parringtoni?). - Eberhard Karls University of T�bingen. - … Read more
In Depth Fossils of the dinocephalian genus Tapinocephalus are fairly common within the Lower Beaufort Beds, that the location where fossils of the genus are known is actually called the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone. Tapinocephalus seems to have been a successful genus of Tapinocephalus given the large number of remains, and superficially the genus resembles Moschops. … Read more
In Depth Patranomodon is one of the earliest known anomodonts, and is so primitive, it still had teeth. Later anomodonts such as dinocephalians would eventually lose all they teeth (except for some genera which retained a pair of large tusks) and develop horned beaks for cropping vegetation. Further Reading - A new anomodont therapsid from … Read more
In Depth Rastodon is a genus of dicynodont that lived in Brazil during the Permian. Like other dicynodonts, Rastodon had two tusks which grew downwards from the upper jaw. However, unlike dicynodont genera named before 2016, the tusks of Rastodon are noted as actually curving to point slightly forwards. Further Reading - A new dicynodont … Read more
In Depth Lycideops is a genus of therocephalian therapsid that lived in South Africa during the Late Permian. Further Reading - The Oldest Therocephalians (Therapsida, Eutheriodontia) and the Early Diversification of Therapsida. - Palaeontology 51 (4): 1011. - F. Abdala, B. S. Rubidge & J. Van Den Heever - 2008. - Reassessment of the morphology … Read more
In Depth Because Phreatophasma is known only from a single femur (upper leg bone), there is great uncertainty about what kind of animal Phreatophasma actually was, with suggestions ranging from it being a pelycosaur to parareptile. Most researchers consider Phreatophasma to be a nomen dubium. Further Reading – A re-examination of the enigmatic Russian tetrapod … Read more
In Depth Emyduranus is a genus of non-mammalian synapsid that lived in South Africa during the Permian. Further Reading - On some new genera and species of anomodont reptiles from the Karroo beds of South Africa. - Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 647-674. - Robert Broom - 1921.