Stahleckeriids Temporal range: Triassic, | |
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Mounted skeleton of Ischigualastia jenseni | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Synapsida |
Clade: | Therapsida |
Suborder: | † Anomodontia |
Clade: | † Dicynodontia |
Clade: | † Kannemeyeriiformes |
Family: | † Stahleckeriidae Cox, 1965 |
Subgroups | |
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Stahleckeriidae is a family of dicynodont therapsids whose fossils are known from the Triassic of North America, South America, Asia and Africa. [2]
Below is a cladogram from Szczygielski and Sulej (2023): [3]
Stahleckeriidae |
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Genus | Status | Age | Location | Description | Images |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Valid | Norian [4] | United States | |||
Valid | Norian [5] | United States | |||
Valid | Carnian | Argentina | |||
Lisowicia | Valid | Late Norian — Early Rhaetian? | Poland | ||
Valid | Norian [6] | Argentina and Brazil | |||
Valid | Carnian | Morocco | |||
Valid | Norian [7] | United States | |||
Valid | Late Triassic | South Africa | |||
Valid | Anisian | Zambia | |||
Valid | Ladinian | Brazil and Namibia | |||
Valid | Induan | China | Initially identified as a stahleckeriid, possibly a more basal genus. | ||
Valid | Anisian? | South Africa | |||
Valid | Carnian | Germany and Poland | |||
Valid | Anisian | Zambia | |||
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.
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 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.
Sinokannemeyeria is a genus of kannemeyeriiform dicynodont that lived during the Anisian age of Middle Triassic period in what is now Shanxi, China.
Emydops is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsids from the Middle Permian to Late Permian of what is now South Africa. The genus is generally small and herbivorous, sharing the dicynodont synapomorphy of bearing two tusks. In the following years, the genus grew to include fourteen species. Many of these species were erected on the basis of differences in the teeth and the positioning of the frontal and parietal bones. A 2008 study narrowed Emydops down to two species, E. arctatus and the newly described E. oweni.
Wadiasaurus is an extinct genus of dicynodont from the family Kannemeyeria, that lived in herds from the early to Middle Triassic. Substantial fossorial evidence of W. indicus was recovered from Yerrapalli Formation of the Pranhita-Godavari valley, India, and it is so far the only Kannemeyeriid known for certain from India. The Kannemeyeriiformes underwent a significant diversification during the middle Triassic, with roughly 40 known species distributed worldwide. All Kannemeyeriiformes were medium to large bodied, graviportal herbivores with relatively erect posture and gait. Wadiasaurus indicus is currently the only known species of Wadiasaurus.
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.
The Pekin Formation is a Late Triassic (Carnian) geological formation in North Carolina. The Pekin Formation is specific to the Sanford Sub-Basin of the Deep River Basin of North Carolina, although it may be equivalent to the Stockton Formation of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. The Pekin Formation was deposited in a rift basin along the Atlantic margin of North America during the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea during the Late Triassic. The most common rocks in the Pekin Formation are red to brown sandstones, representing a terrestrial fluvial (riverine) and floodplain environment in a hot, humid climate. It has yielded both abundant plant and animal fossils, including some of the oldest potential dinosaur footprints in the world and the large predatory crocodylomorph Carnufex carolinensis.
Biseridens is an extinct genus of anomodont therapsid, and one of the most basal anomodont genera known. Originally known from a partial skull misidentified as an eotitanosuchian in 1997, another well-preserved skull was found in the Qingtoushan Formation in the Qilian Mountains of Gansu, China, in 2009 that clarified its relationships to anomodonts, such as the dicynodonts.
Elephantosaurus is an extinct genus of dicynodont from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian) Bukobay Formation. The holotype and only known specimen, catalogued as PIN 525/25, is a fragment of the skull that includes portions of the left interorbital region and nasal bones, and suggests a very large animal with a skull at least 30 centimetres (12 in) wide. The bones of the skull roof are also unusually thick. While usually considered a member of the Stahleckeriidae, generally due to its size, it probably falls just outside the group due to its frontal bone contributing substantially to the margin of the eye socket.
Zambiasaurus is an extinct genus of dicynodonts that was discovered in the Middle Triassic (Anisian) Ntawere Formation of Zambia, southern Africa. It was a large dicynodont, reconstructed using several fossil fragments, in majority belonging to probably a juvenile Zambiasaurus submersus.
Uralokannemeyeria is an extinct genus of kannemeyeriiform dicynodont known from the Middle Triassic Donguz Formation of Bashkortostan, Russia.
The Popo Agie Formation is a Triassic geologic formation that crops out in western Wyoming, western Colorado, and Utah. It was deposited during the Late Triassic in fluvial (river) and lacustrine (lake) environments that existed across much of what is now the American southwest. Fragmentary fossils of prehistoric reptiles and amphibians, including pseudosuchian reptiles and temnospondyl amphibians, have been discovered in the Popo Agie Formation. Dinosaur remains are also among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, although none have yet been referred to a specific 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.
Kannemeyeriiformes is a group of large-bodied Triassic dicynodonts. As a clade, Kannemeyeriiformes has been defined to include the species Kannemeyeria simocephalus and all dicynodonts more closely related to it than to the species Lystrosaurus murrayi.
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.
Eubrachiosaurus is an extinct genus of stahleckeriid dicynodont known from the Late Triassic of Wyoming, United States.
Shansiodontidae is a family of dicynodont therapsids.
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.
Elphidae is a clade of bidentalian dicynodonts containing Elph, Katumbia, and Interpresosaurus. It is exclusively known from the Late Permian of Russia and Tanzania. Elphidae is variously recovered as either at the base of a paraphyletic Cryptodontia, or as basal dicynodontoids.
Woznikella is an extinct genus of kannemeyeriiform dicynodont from the Late Triassic of Poland and possibly Germany of Europe. The type and only known species is W. triradiata.