Embolomeri is an order of tetrapods or stem-tetrapods, possibly members of Reptiliomorpha. Embolomeres first evolved in the Early Carboniferous (Mississippian) Period and were the largest and most successful predatory tetrapods of the Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) Period. They were specialized semiaquatic predators with long bodies for eel-like undulatory swimming. Embolomeres are characterized by their vertebral centra, which are formed by two cylindrical segments, the pleurocentrum at the rear and intercentrum at the front. These segments are equal in size. Most other tetrapods have pleurocentra and intercentra which are drastically different in size and shape.
Euchambersia is an extinct genus of therocephalian therapsids that lived during the Late Permian in what is now South Africa and China. The genus contains two species. The type species E. mirabilis was named by paleontologist Robert Broom in 1931 from a skull missing the lower jaw. A second skull, belonging to a probably immature individual, was later described. In 2022, a second species, E. liuyudongi, was named by Jun Liu and Fernando Abdala from a well-preserved skull. It is a member of the family Akidnognathidae, which historically has also been referred by as the synonymous Euchambersiidae.
Chroniosuchus is an extinct genus of chroniosuchid from the upper Permian period. The genus was first named by Vjuschkov in 1957.
Bystrowiana is an extinct genus of bystrowianid chroniosuchian from upper Permian deposits of Vladimir Region, Russia and Jiyuan, China. Chroniosuchians are often thought to be reptiliomorphs, but some recent phylogenetic analyses suggest instead that they are stem-tetrapods. The genus is named in honour of the Russian paleontologist Alexey Bystrow. It was first described by Vyushkov in 1957 and the type species is Bystrowiana permira. Two species—B. permira and B. sinica—are known.
Rhinesuchidae is a family of tetrapods that lived primarily in the Permian period. They belonged to the broad group Temnospondyli, a successful and diverse collection of semiaquatic tetrapods which modern amphibians are probably descended from. Rhinesuchids can be differentiated from other temnospondyls by details of their skulls, most notably the interior structure of their otic notches at the back of the skull. They were among the earliest-diverging members of the Stereospondyli, a subgroup of temnospondyls with flat heads and aquatic habits. Although more advanced stereospondyls evolved to reach worldwide distribution in the Triassic period, rhinesuchids primarily lived in the high-latitude environments of Gondwana during the Guadalupian and Lopingian epochs of the Permian. The taxonomy of this family has been convoluted, with more than twenty species having been named in the past; a 2017 review recognized only eight of them to be valid. While several purported members of this group have been reported to have lived in the Triassic period, most are either dubious or do not belong to the group. However, at least one valid genus of rhinesuchid is known from the early Triassic, a small member known as Broomistega. The most recent formal definition of Rhinesuchidae, advocated by Mariscano et al. (2017) is that of a stem-based clade containing all taxa more closely related to Rhinesuchus whaitsi than to Lydekkerina huxleyi or Peltobatrachus pustulatus. A similar alternate definition is that Rhinesuchidae is a stem-based clade containing all taxa more closely related to Uranocentrodon senekalensis than to Lydekkerina huxleyi, Trematosaurus brauni, or Mastodonsaurus giganteus.
Chroniosuchia is a group of tetrapods that lived from the Middle Permian to Late Triassic in what is now Eastern Europe, Kyrgyzstan, China and Germany. Chroniosuchians are often thought to be reptiliomorphs, but some recent phylogenetic analyses suggest instead that they are stem-tetrapods. They were all rather short limbed with a strong tail and elongated snout, somewhat resembling modern crocodiles. The group is traditionally considered to be a suborder or order of labyrinthodonts. Chroniosuchians likely had ecological niches as riverside predators, and may have been outcompeted by semiaquatic true reptiles such as phytosaurs in the late Triassic. Most forms bore a heavy armour of scutes along the back, possibly for protection against land born predators like therapsids, or to strengthen the axial skeleton for terrestrial locomotion. Indeed, femoral microanatomy of Chroniosaurus suggests that it was amphibious to terrestrial.
Wangwusaurus is extinct genus of probable therapsid that lived in the Late Permian in present-day China. Only species is known, Wangwusaurus tayuensis, described by the paleontologist Yang Zhongjian in 1979 from seventeen teeth found in the Jiyuan formation, of which at least seven are recognized as not belonging to those of therapsids.
Kombuisia is a genus of dicynodont from Early to Middle Triassic of South Africa and Antarctica. Two species were described for the genus: Kombuisia frerensis (type) and Kombuisia antarctica.
Dromotectum is an extinct genus of bystrowianid chroniosuchians from the Late Permian of China and Early Triassic of Russia. Two species have been named: the type species D. spinosum and the species D. largum. D. spinosum, the first species to be named, comes from Lower Triassic deposits in the Samara Region of European Russia and is known from the holotype PIN 2424/23, which consists of armor scutes, and from PIN 2424/65, 4495/14 and 2252/397. It was found in the Staritskaya Formation of the Rybinskin Horizon and named by I.V. Novikov and M.A. Shishkin in 2000. The generic name means “corridor with hipped vault” + “roof” (tecton), and the specific name means “spinous”. A second species, D. largum, was named by Liu Jun, Xu Li, Jia Song-Hai, Pu Han-Yong, and Liu Xiao-Ling in 2014 from the Shangshihezi Formation near Jiyuan in Henan province, China on the basis of specimen IVPP V 4013.1, a large scute.
Adamanterpeton is a genus of Edopoid Temnospondyl within the family Cochleosauridae. The type species A. ohioensis was named in 1998 and is currently the only known species within this genus. Adamanterpeton is rare in the Linton vertebrate assemblage, with other amphibians like Sauropleura, Ophiderpeton, and Colosteus being more common. Unlike other Linton vertebrates, Adamanterpeton may have been adapted to a terrestrial lifestyle.
Sinophoneus is an extinct genus of carnivorous dinocephalian therapsid belonging to the family Anteosauridae. It lived 272 to 270 million years ago at the beginning of the Middle Permian in what is now the Gansu Province in northern China. It is known by a skull of an adult individual, as well as by many skulls of juvenile specimens. The latter were first considered as belonging to a different animal, named Stenocybus, before being reinterpreted as immature Sinophoneus. Sinophoneus shows a combination of characters present in other anteosaurs. Its bulbous profile snout and external nostrils located in front of the canine are reminiscent of the basal anteosaur Archaeosyodon, while its massive transverse pterygoids processes with enlarged distal ends are more similar to the more derived anteosaurs Anteosaurus and Titanophoneus. First phylogenetic analyzes identified Sinophoneus as the most basal Anteosaurinae. A more recent analysis positioned it outside the Anteosaurinae and Syodontinae subclades, and recovers it as the most basal Anteosauridae.
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.
Bunostegos is an extinct genus of pareiasaur parareptile from the Late Permian of the Agadez Region in Niger. The type species, Bunostegos akokanensis, was named from the Moradi Formation in 2003. It was a cow-sized animal with a distinctive skull that had large bony knobs, similar in form to those of other pareiasaurs but far larger. The species appears to have lived in a desert in the centre of the supercontinent of Pangaea.
Alveusdectes is an extinct genus of diadectid tetrapod from the Late Permian of China. Like other diadectids, it was a large-bodied terrestrial herbivore capable of eating tough fibrous plant material. It was described in 2015 on the basis of a single partial skull and lower jaw found in the Shangshihezi Formation near the city of Jiyuan in Henan. This skull was found in a layer of the Shangshihezi Formation that dates to about 256 million years ago and contains the remains of many other terrestrial tetrapods including pareiasaurs, chroniosuchians, and therapsids. Alveusdectes is the youngest known diadectid by 16 million years and is also the only diadectid known from Asia. It likely represents a late-surviving lineage of diadectids that radiated eastward from western Laurasia into north China. Diadectids are otherwise absent from eastern Laurasia, which may reflect their low diversity at the time. Diadectids first appeared in the Late Carboniferous and were the first animals to have ever occupied the niche of large-bodied herbivores, allowing them to undergo an evolutionary radiation in the Early Permian. By the Late Permian many other groups of tetrapods had entered that niche, and increased competition among herbivores likely resulted in the eventual extinction of diadectids. Alveusdectes may have been able to persist because the fauna of north China seems to have been isolated from other Laurasian faunas during the Late Permian, meaning that fewer herbivores were competing for the same ecological space.
Parasumina is an extinct genus of anomodont known from the late Capitanian age at the end of the middle Permian period of European Russia. The type and only species is Parasuminia ivakhnenkoi. It was closely related to Suminia, another Russian anomodont, and was named for its resemblance. Little is known about Parasuminia as the only fossils are of fragmentary pieces of the skull and jaw, but the known remains suggest that its head and jaws were deeper and more robust than those of Suminia, and with shorter, stouter teeth. However, despite these differences they appear to have been similar animals with a similarly complex method of processing vegetation.
Gordodon is an extinct genus of non-mammalian synapsid that lived during the Early Permian of what is now Otero County, New Mexico. It was a member of the herbivorous sail-backed family Edaphosauridae and contains only a single species, the type species G. kraineri. Gordodon is unusual among early synapsids for its teeth, which were arranged similarly to those of modern mammals and unlike the simple, uniform lizard-like teeth of other early herbivorous synapsids. Gordodon had large incisor-like teeth at the front, followed by a prominent gap between them and a short row of peg-like teeth at the back. Gordodon was also relatively long-necked for an early synapsid, with elongated and gracile vertebrae in its neck and back. Like other edaphosaurids, Gordodon had a tall sail on its back made from the bony neural spines of its vertebrae. The spines also had bony knobs on them, a common trait of edaphosaurids, but the knobs of Gordodon are also unique for being more slender, thorn-like and randomly arranged along the spines. It is estimated to have been rather small at 1 m in length excluding the tail and 34 kg (75 lb) in weight.
Laosuchus is an extinct genus of chroniosuchian known from the Permian-Triassic boundary of Asia. Two species have been named.
Counillonia is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsid from the area of Luang Prabang in Laos, Southeast Asia that lived at around the time of the Permian-Triassic boundary and possibly dates to the earliest Early Triassic. Its type and only known species is C. superoculis. Counillonia was related to the Triassic dicynodonts such as Lystrosaurus and the Kannemeyeriiformes that survived the Permian mass extinction, but it was more closely related to the Permian genus Dicynodon than to either of these lineages. Counillonia may then possibly represent another line of dicynodonts that survived the Permian mass extinction into the Triassic period, depending on its age. The discovery of Counillonia in Laos and its unexpected evolutionary relationships hint at the less well understood geographies of dicynodont diversity across the Permo-Triassic boundary outside of well explored regions like the Karoo Basin in South Africa.
Repelinosaurus is an extinct genus of dicynodont from the Purple Claystone Formation of Luang Prabang in Laos, Southeast Asia that lived at around the time of the Permian-Triassic boundary and possibly dates to the earliest Early Triassic. Its type and only known species is R. robustus. Repelinosaurus was originally described as the earliest known kannemeyeriiform dicynodont, supporting the idea of a more rapid radiation of the Triassic kannemeyeriiform dicynodonts during the Early Triassic following the Permian mass extinction. However, it may alternatively be more closely related to the Permian Dicynodon. The discovery of a potential early kannemeyeriiform in an understudied locality like Laos highlights the importance of such places in dicynodont research, which has been largely focused on historically important localities such as the Karoo Basin of South Africa.
The Naobaogou Formation is a geological formation in the Daqing Mountains of China. It is likely of Lopingian age. It consists of three rhythms of sediment, labelled members I-III primarily of purple siltstone, but each with a thick basal conglomerate bed. It is notable for its fossil content, producing one of the most diverse Late Permian vertebrate faunas outside Russia and South Africa.
