Milleropsis

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Milleropsis
Temporal range: Late Permian, Changhsingian
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Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Parareptilia
Order: Millerosauria
Family: Millerettidae
Genus: Milleropsis
Gow, 1972
Type species
Milleropsis pricei
(Watson, 1957 [originally Millerosaurus pricei])
Synonyms

MillerinoidesBroom, 1941
Millerinoides acutirostrisBroom, 1941

Milleropsis is an extinct genus of millerettid parareptile from the Late Permian (Changhsingian stage) of South Africa. [1] [2] [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Millerettidae</span> Extinct family of reptiles

Millerettidae is an extinct family of parareptiles from the Middle Permian to the Late Permian period of South Africa. The millerettids were small insectivores and probably resembled modern lizards in appearance and lifestyle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolosauridae</span> Extinct family of reptiles

Bolosauridae is an extinct family of ankyramorph parareptiles known from the latest Carboniferous (Gzhelian) or earliest Permian (Asselian) to the early Guadalupian epoch of North America, China, Germany, Russia and France. The bolosaurids were unusual for their time period by being bipedal, the oldest known tetrapods to have been so. Their teeth suggest that they were herbivores. The bolosaurids were a rare group and died out without any known descendants. The following cladogram shows the phylogenetic position of the Bolosauridae, from Johannes Müller, Jin-Ling Li and Robert R. Reisz, 2008.

<i>Milleretta</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Milleretta is an extinct genus of millerettid parareptile from the Late Permian of South Africa. Fossils have been found in the Balfour Formation. Milleretta was a moderately sized, lizard-like animal, about 60 centimetres (24 in) in length. It was probably insectivorous. Its only known species is Milleretta rubidgei, making Milleretta a monospecific genus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beaufort Group</span> Third of the main subdivisions of the Karoo Supergroup in South Africa

The Beaufort Group is the third of the main subdivisions of the Karoo Supergroup in South Africa. It is composed of a lower Adelaide Subgroup and an upper Tarkastad Subgroup. It follows conformably after the Ecca Group and unconformably underlies the Stormberg Group. Based on stratigraphic position, lithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic correlations, palynological analyses, and other means of geological dating, the Beaufort Group rocks are considered to range between Middle Permian (Wordian) to Early Triassic (Anisian) in age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Procolophonidae</span> Extinct family of reptiles

Procolophonidae is an extinct family of small, lizard-like parareptiles known from the Late Permian to Late Triassic that were distributed across Pangaea, having been reported from Europe, North America, China, South Africa, South America, Antarctica and Australia. The most primitive procolophonids were likely insectiovous or omnivorous, more derived members of the clade developed bicusped molars, and were likely herbivorous feeding on high fiber vegetation or durophagous omnivores. Many members of the group are noted for spines projecting from the quadratojugal bone of the skull, which likely served a defensive purpose as well as possibly also for display. At least some taxa were likely fossorial burrowers. While diverse during the Early and Middle Triassic, they had very low diversity during the Late Triassic, and were extinct by the beginning of the Jurassic.

<i>Nyctiphruretus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Nyctiphruretus is an extinct genus of nyctiphruretid parareptile known from the Guadalupian series of European Russia.

<i>Procolophon</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Procolophon is a genus of lizard-like procolophonid parareptiles that first appeared in the Early Triassic (Induan) of South Africa, Brazil, and Antarctica. It persisted through the Permian–Triassic extinction event, but went extinct in the beginning of the Early Middle Triassic. The type species is P. trigoniceps.

<i>Belebey</i> (genus) Extinct genus of reptiles

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<i>Eunotosaurus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Eunotosaurus is an extinct genus of amniote, possibly a close relative of turtles. Eunotosaurus lived in the late Middle Permian and fossils can be found in the Karoo Supergroup of South Africa. Eunotosaurus resided in the swamps of southern Africa. Its ribs were wide and flat, forming broad plates similar to a primitive turtle shell, and the vertebrae were nearly identical to those of some turtles. Accordingly, it is often considered as a possible transitional fossil between turtles and their prehistoric ancestors. However, it is possible that these turtle-like features evolved independently of the same features in turtles, since other anatomical studies and phylogenetic analyses suggest that Eunotosaurus may instead have been a parareptile, an early-diverging neodiapsid unrelated to turtles, or a synapsid.

Elliotsmithia is a small varanopid synapsid found from the late Middle Permian of South Africa. It is the sole basal synapsid "pelycosaur" known from the supercontinent Gondwana and only two specimens have been yielded to date. Its species name longiceps is derived from Latin, meaning "long head". Both known Elliotsmithia fossils were recovered from Abrahamskraal Formation rocks—within the boundaries of the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone—of the lower Beaufort Group. It was named for the late Sir Grafton Elliot Smith in 1937.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acleistorhinidae</span> Extinct family of reptiles

Acleistorhinidae is an extinct family of Late Carboniferous and Early Permian-aged parareptiles. Acleistorhinids are most diverse from the Richards Spur locality of the Early Permian of Oklahoma. Richards Spur acleistorhinids include Acleistorhinus, Colobomycter, and possibly Delorhynchus and Feeserpeton. Other taxa include Carbonodraco from the Late Carboniferous of Ohio and Karutia from the Early Permian of Brazil. Acleistorhinidae is commonly considered a subgroup of lanthanosuchoids, related to taxa such as Chalcosaurus, Lanthaniscus and Lanthanosuchus. However, a re-examination of parareptile phylogeny conducted by Cisneros et al. (2021) argued that lanthanosuchids were not closely related to acleistorhinids. The phylogenetic analysis conducted by these authors recovered acleistorhinids as the sister group of the clade Procolophonia, while lanthanosuchids were recovered within the procolophonian subgroup Pareiasauromorpha.

<i>Millerosaurus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Millerosaurus is an extinct genus of millerettid parareptile from the Late Permian of South Africa. It was a small animal which reached a length of 30 cm. Unlike many other parareptiles, it had holes (fenestrae) behind the eyesockets in the skull. It had a slabsided body, a long tail, and a narrow but triangular skull with large eyes, and is thought to have been insectivorous.

Broomia is an extinct genus of millerettid parareptile from the Middle Permian of South Africa. It was originally described by D. M. S. Watson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abrahamskraal Formation</span> Geological formation of the Beaufort Group in South Africa

The Abrahamskraal Formation is a geological formation and is found in numerous localities in the Northern Cape, Western Cape, and the Eastern Cape of South Africa. It is the lowermost formation of the Adelaide Subgroup of the Beaufort Group, a major geological group that forms part of the greater Karoo Supergroup. It represents the first fully terrestrial geological deposits of the Karoo Basin. Outcrops of the Abrahamskraal Formation are found from the small town Middelpos in its westernmost localities, then around Sutherland, the Moordenaarskaroo north of Laingsburg, Williston, Fraserburg, Leeu-Gamka, Loxton, and Victoria West in the Western Cape and Northern Cape. In the Eastern Cape outcrops are known from Rietbron, north of Klipplaat and Grahamstown, and also southwest of East London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ankyramorpha</span> Extinct clade of reptiles

Ankyramorpha is an extinct clade of procolophonomorph parareptiles which lived between the early Cisuralian epoch and the latest Triassic period of Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lanthanosuchoidea</span> Extinct superfamily of reptiles

Lanthanosuchoidea is an extinct superfamily of ankyramorph parareptiles from the middle Pennsylvanian to the middle Guadalupian epoch of Europe, North America and Asia. It was named by the Russian paleontologist Ivachnenko in 1980, and it contains two families Acleistorhinidae and Lanthanosuchidae.

Lanthaniscus is an extinct genus of lanthanosuchoid ankyramorph parareptile known from the Guadalupian epoch of Eastern Europe, Russia. Lanthaniscus was first named by M. F. Ivakhnenko in 1980 and the type species is Lanthaniscus efremovi. L. efremovi was originally described on the basis of the holotype PIN 3706/9 from Peza-1 locality, Krasnoshchel' Formation, of Arkhangelsk. Various authors had assigned it to the family Lanthanosuchidae; however, Ivakhnenko, who described an additional specimen of L. efremovi in 2008, assigned Lanthaniscus to its own family, the Lanthaniscidae. The additional specimen PIN 4543/2, was collected from the same formation as the holotype, from the Nisogora locality, which is slightly younger in age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Procolophoninae</span> Extinct subfamily of reptiles

Procolophoninae is an extinct subfamily of procolophonid parareptiles from the late Early Triassic to the early Middle Triassic of Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe and South America. Currently, the oldest-known procolophonine is Procolophon from the earliest Olenekian stage.

<i>Kapes</i> (genus) Extinct genus of reptiles

Kapes is an extinct genus of procolophonid parareptile from the Lower and Middle Triassic of the United Kingdom and Russia. The type species K. amaenus was named in 1975 from the banks of the Vychegda River in the Komi Republic of Russia. In 1983, a new species was brought into the genus, K. majmesculae. K. majmesculae was first named in 1968 as a member of the genus Tichvinskia. A third Russian species, K. serotinus, was named in 1991. In 2002, Kapes bentoni was described from the Middle Triassic Otter Sandstone Formation of Devon, England, extending the geographic range of Kapes. In the same paper, K. serotinus was synonymized with K. majmesculae and another Russian species was assigned to Kapes called K. komiensis. K. komiensis was first named in 1975 as a member of the genus Macrophon.

Barasaurus is an extinct genus of owenettid procolophonoid parareptile known from the Late Permian and Early Triassic of Madagascar. It contains a single species, Barasaurus besairiei.

References

  1. Gow, C. E. (1972). "The osteology and relationships of the Millerettidae (Reptilia: Cotylosauria)". Journal of Zoology. 167 (2): 219–264. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1972.tb01731.x. ISSN   1469-7998.
  2. Cisneros, Juan Carlos; Rubidge, Bruce S.; Mason, Richard; Dube, Charlton (24 November 2008). "Analysis of millerettid parareptile relationships in the light of new material of Broomia perplexa Watson, 1914, from the Permian of South Africa". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 6 (4): 453–462. doi:10.1017/S147720190800254X. ISSN   1477-2019. S2CID   73723455.
  3. Marcello Ruta; Juan C. Cisneros; Torsten Liebrect; Linda A. Tsuji; Johannes Muller (2011). "Amniotes through major biological crises: faunal turnover among Parareptiles and the end-Permian mass extinction". Palaeontology. 54 (5): 1117–1137. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2011.01051.x .