| Emydopidae Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Clade: | Therapsida |
| Suborder: | † Anomodontia |
| Clade: | † Dicynodontia |
| Superfamily: | † Emydopoidea |
| Family: | † Emydopidae Cluver and King, 1983 |
| Genera [1] | |
Emydopidae is a family of dicynodont therapsids.
Dicynodontia is an extinct clade of anomodonts, an extinct type of non-mammalian therapsid. Dicynodonts were herbivores that typically bore a pair of tusks, hence their name, which means 'two dog tooth'. Members of the group possessed a horny, typically toothless beak, unique amongst all synapsids. Dicynodonts first appeared in Southern Pangaea during the mid-Permian, ca. 270–260 million years ago, and became globally distributed and the dominant herbivorous animals in the Late Permian, ca. 260–252 Mya. They were devastated by the end-Permian Extinction that wiped out most other therapsids ca. 252 Mya. They rebounded during the Triassic but died out towards the end of that period. They were the most successful and diverse of the non-mammalian therapsids, with over 70 genera known, varying from rat-sized burrowers to elephant-sized browsers.
Placerias is an extinct genus of dicynodonts that lived during the Carnian to the Norian age of the Triassic Period. Placerias belongs to a group of dicynodonts called Kannemeyeriiformes, which was the last known group of dicynodonts before the taxon became extinct at the end of the Triassic.
Kannemeyeria is a genus of dicynodont that lived during the Anisian age of Middle Triassic period in what is now Africa and South America. The generic name is given in honor of Dr. Daniel Rossouw Kannemeyer, the South African fossil collector who discovered the original specimen. It is one of the first representatives of the family, and hence one of the first large herbivores of the Triassic.
Diictodon is an extinct genus of pylaecephalid dicynodont. These mammal-like synapsids lived during the Late Permian period, approximately 255 million years ago. Fossils have been found in the Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone of the Madumabisa Mudstone of the Luangwa Basin in Zambia and the Tropidostoma Assemblage Zone of the Teekloof Formation, Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone of the Abrahamskraal Formation, Dicynodon Assemblage Zone of the Balfour Formation, Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone of the Middleton or Balfour Formation of South Africa and the Guodikeng Formation of China. Roughly half of all Permian vertebrate specimens found in South Africa are those of Diictodon. This small herbivorous animal was one of the most successful synapsids in the Permian period.
Stahleckeriidae is a family of dicynodont therapsids whose fossils are known from the Triassic of North America, South America, Asia and Africa.
Dinodontosaurus is a genus of dicynodont therapsid. It was medium to large dicynodont of the Triassic and had a beak corneum. It lived in the Middle Triassic but disappeared in the Upper Triassic.
Eodicynodon is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsids, a highly diverse group of herbivorous synapsids that were widespread during the middle-late Permian and early Triassic. As its name suggests, Eodicynodon is the oldest and most primitive dicynodont yet identified, ranging from the middle to late Permian and possessing a mix of ancestral Anomodont/therapsid features and derived dicynodont synapomorphies.
Moghreberia is an extinct genus of dicynodont predicted to have lived only in the mid-Triassic, primarily during the early middle Carnian and found only in the Angara Basin of Morocco. Moghreberia belonged to the Stahleckeriidae family, a group of anomodont therapsids and is most commonly known by its species Moghreberia nmachouensis. Its name is derived from the Arabic phrase al-Maghrib al-Aqsa meaning “the far west”, a term used by Arabic scholars to refer to the approximate region of Morocco, the area in which this animal’s fossil was first discovered. The extinction of many dicynodonts has been attributed to pressures of the Carnian Pluvial Episode, which occurred around 234-232 Ma and generated major ecological and climate changes for years to come.
Dicynodontoides is a genus of small to medium-bodied, herbivorous, emydopoid dicynodonts from the Late Permian. The name Dicynodontoides references its “dicynodont-like” appearance due to the caniniform tusks featured by most members of this infraorder. Kingoria, a junior synonym, has been used more widely in the literature than the more obscure Dicynodontoides, which is similar-sounding to another distantly related genus of dicynodont, Dicynodon. Two species are recognized: D. recurvidens from South Africa, and D. nowacki from Tanzania.
Odontocyclops is an extinct genus of Dicynodonts that lived in the Late Permian. Dicynodonts are believed to be the first major assemblage of terrestrial herbivores. Fossils of Odontocyclops have been found in the Karoo Basin of South Africa and the Luangwa Valley of Zambia. The phylogenetic classification of Odontocyclops has been long under debate, but most current research places them as their own genus of Dicynodonts and being very closely related to Rhachiocephalus and Oudenodon.
Rechnisaurus is an extinct genus of dicynodont from the Middle Triassic (Anisian) Yerrapalli Formation of India. It contains a single species, Rechnisaurus cristarhynchus.
Vinceria is an extinct genus of kannemeyeriiform dicynodont in the family Shansiodontidae. Fossils of the genus have been found in the Anisian Cerro de las Cabras Formation and Carnian Río Seco de la Quebrada Formation of Argentina. One species, V. argentinensis, named in 1966, was moved to its own genus, Acratophorus, in 2021. Another species, V. vieja, was merged with Acratophorus argentinensis in 2021, leaving V. andina as the only species in the genus.
Lystrosauridae is a family of dicynodont therapsids from the Permian and Triassic time periods. It includes two genera, Lystrosaurus and Kwazulusaurus. Kwazulusaurus includes a single species, K. shakai, from the Late Permian of South Africa and Lystrosaurus includes many species from the Late Permian and Early Triassic of South Africa, India, and Antarctica.
Syops is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsid. The type species S. vanhoepeni was first named in 1938 as Dicynodon vanhoepeni. Fossils of the genus have been found in the Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone in the Usili Formation of the Ruhuhu Basin, Tanzania and the Upper Madumabisa Mudstone Formation of the Luangwa Basin, Zambia. Its phylogenetic placement is somewhat uncertain, with multiple different studies finding it as either a basal geikiid, rhachiocephalid a dicynodontoid more derived than the most basal genera but less derived than Lystrosauridae, or a lystrosaurid.
Turfanodon is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsid from the Late Permian Sunan, Guodikeng, and Naobaogou Formations of China. The holotype of T. bogdaensis was discovered between 1963-1964 and was originally named in 1973 by A. Sun with the type species Turfanodon bogdaensis, Turfanodon was reclassified as a junior synonym of the related Dicynodon in 1988 by G. M. King. T. bogdaensis remained a species of Dicynodon for over two decades before the genus was reinstated in 2011 in a revision of the taxonomy of Dicynodon by palaeontologist Christian Kammerer. A second species from Inner Mongolia, T. jiufengensis, was named in 2021 by palaeontologist Jun Liu from a nearly complete skeleton and other referred bones. Turfanodon was a relatively large dicynodont, and similar in appearance to the related Daptocephalus from South Africa.
Kunpania is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsid from the Quanzijie Formation of Xinjiang, China. The type and only species is K. scopulusa, and it is known only by a single incomplete specimen including parts of the skull and forelimb. Since its initial description in 1978 by palaeontologist Ailing Sun, it has sometimes been considered to be another species of Dicynodon by other researchers, or potentially undiagnostic. However, a redescription in 2021 reaffirmed its distinctiveness, including a uniquely well developed muscle attachment on the humerus. Kunpania is perhaps the oldest known member of the derived dicynodont group Dicynodontoidea, potentially dating to the Middle Permian period during the Capitanian, and so may fill a knowledge gap in the history of dicynodont evolution.
Anomocephaloidea is a clade of basal anomodont therapsids related to the dicynodonts known from what is now South Africa and Brazil during the Middle Permian. It includes only two species, Anomocephalus africanus from the Karoo Basin of South Africa and Tiarajudens eccentricus from the Paraná Basin of Brazil. Anomocephaloidea was named in 2011 with the discovery of Tiarajudens, although Anomocephalus itself has been known since 1999.
Rastodon is an extinct genus of dicynodont. Uniquely among dicynodonts, its tusks curve forward. The type and only species is R. procurvidens.
Pentasaurus is an extinct genus of dicynodont of the family Stahleckeriidae, closely related to the well known Placerias. It was found in the Lower Elliot Formation of South Africa, dated to the Norian of the Late Triassic period. The genus contains the type and only species, Pentasaurus goggai. Pentasaurus is named after the ichnogenus Pentasauropus, fossil footprints that were originally described from the lower Elliot Formation in 1970 decades before the body fossils of Pentasaurus itself were recognised. Pentasauropus footprints were likely made by dicynodonts, and in South Africa Pentasaurus itself was the likely trackmaker. The name reflects the fact that a large dicynodont was predicted to have existed in the lower Elliot Formation before any body fossils were recognised, and so Pentasaurus was named after its probable footprints. This is a reversal of the more typical occurrence where fossil footprints are named after their presumed trackmakers. The name of the species honours its collector Alfred Brown, nicknamed "Gogga", which means "bug" in Afrikaans.
Ufudocyclops is an extinct genus of stahleckeriid dicynodont from the Middle Triassic of South Africa. It was found in the Burgersdorp Formation, part of the uppermost Cynognathus Assemblage Zone of the Beaufort Group in the Karoo Basin. The type and only known species is U. mukanelai. It was a large, beaked herbivore like other Triassic dicynodonts, lacking tusks, and is mostly characterised by unique features of the skull. It is known from three specimens, two of which were previously referred to the Tanzanian dicynodont Angonisaurus. The separation of Ufudocyclops from Angonisaurus indicates that the Middle Triassic fauna of the Beaufort Group in South Africa was not part of a larger shared fauna with those of the Manda Beds in Tanzania, as was previously supposed, and suggests that they were separated as more localised faunas, possibly by geographic barriers or in time. Ufudocyclops then would have been a unique part of the uppermost Cynognathus Assemblage Zone in South Africa. It is also the oldest known member of the family Stahleckeriidae, and implies that the family was already diversifying in the Middle Triassic alongside other kannemeyeriiforms, not just in the Late Triassic after other families died out.
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