Ictidosuchoides

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Ictidosuchoides
Temporal range: Late Permian-Early Triassic
~259–249  Ma
Ictidosuchoides.jpg
Life restoration of Ictidosuchoides sp.
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Clade: Therapsida
Suborder: Therocephalia
Family: Ictidosuchidae
Genus: Ictidosuchoides
Broom 1931
Species
  • I. longiceps
  • I. rubidgei

Ictidosuchoides is an extinct genus of ictidosuchid therocephalians. Fossils have been found from the Karoo Basin in South Africa. The genus is known to have been one of the few therocephalians to have survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event in this area, although its numbers were quite low after the extinction. [1] [2]

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Thliptosaurus is an extinct genus of small kingoriid dicynodont from the latest Permian period of the Karoo Basin in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It contains the type and only known species T. imperforatus. Thliptosaurus is from the upper Daptocephalus Assemblage Zone, making it one of the youngest Permian dicynodonts known, living just prior to the Permian mass extinction. It also represents one of the few small bodied dicynodonts to exist at this time, when most other dicynodonts had large body sizes and many small dicynodonts had gone extinct. The unexpected discovery of Thliptosaurus in a region of the Karoo outside of the historically sampled localities suggests that it may have been part of an endemic local fauna not found in these historic sites. Such under-sampled localities may contain 'hidden diversities' of Permian faunas that are unknown from traditional samples. Thliptosaurus is also unusual for dicynodonts as it lacks a pineal foramen, suggesting that it played a much less important role in thermoregulation than it did for other dicynodonts.

References

  1. Smith, R. M. H. and Botha, J. (2005). The recovery of terrestrial vertebrate diversity in the South African Karoo Basin after the End-Permian extinction and it disappeared completely soon after. Comptes Rendus Palevol4:555–568.
  2. Ward, P. D., Botha, J., Buick, R., De Kock, M. O., Erwin, D. H., Garrison, G., Kirschvink, J. L., and Smith, R. (2005). Abrupt and gradual extinction among Late Permian land vertebrates in the Karoo Basin, South Africa. Science307:709–714.