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Caseidae
Caseidae are an extinct family of basal synapsids that lived from the Late Carboniferous to Middle Permian between about 300 and 265 million years ago. Fossils of these animals come from the south-central part of the United States (Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas), from various parts of Europe (European Russia, France, Germany, Sardinia, and Poland), and possibly from South Africa if the genus '' Eunotosaurus'' is indeed a caseid as some authors proposed in 2021. Caseids show great taxonomic and morphological diversity. The most basal taxa were small insectivorous and omnivorous forms that lived mainly in the Upper Carboniferous and Lower Permian, such as '' Eocasea'', '' Callibrachion'', and ''Martensius''. This type of caseid persists until the middle Permian with '' Phreatophasma'' and may be ''Eunotosaurus''. During the early Permian, the clade is mainly represented by many species that adopted a herbivorous diet. Some have evolved into gigantic forms that can reach in leng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ennatosaurus
''Ennatosaurus'' is an extinct genus of caseid synapsid that lived during the Middle Permian (late Roadian - early Wordian) in northern European Russia. The genus is only represented by its type species, ''Ennatosaurus tecton'', which was named in 1956 by Ivan Antonovich Efremov. The species is known from at least six skulls associated with their lower jaws (two of them preserved with the hyoid apparatus), as well as from the postcranial bones of several juvenile individuals. ''Ennatosaurus'' has the typical caseid skull with a short snout tilted forward and very large external nares. However, it differs from other derived caseids by its postcranial skeleton with smaller proportions compared to the size of the skull. As with other advanced caseids, the teeth of ''Ennatosaurus'' were well suited for slicing and cutting vegetation. The presence of a highly developed hyoid apparatus indicates the presence of a massive and mobile tongue, which had to work in collaboration with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Casea
''Casea'' is a genus of herbivorous caseid synapsids that lived during the late Lower Permian (Kungurian) in what is now Texas, United States. The genus is only represented by its type species, ''Casea broilii'', named by Samuel Wendell Williston in 1910. The species is represented by a skull associated with a skeleton (the holotype FMNH UC 656), a second skull (FMNH UC 698), a partial skull with a better preserved dentition than that of the preceding skulls (FMNH UC 1011), and several incomplete postcranial skeletons. Three other ''Casea'' species were later erected, but these are considered today to be invalid or belonging to different genera. ''Casea'' was a small animal with a length of about 1.20 m and a weight of around 20 kg. Etymology The genus name and specific epithet honor paleontologists Ermine C. Case and Ferdinand Broili. Description Skull The skull, relatively small compared to the size of the body, shows the typical morphology of the caseids with a snout ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cotylorhynchus
''Cotylorhynchus'' is an extinct genus of herbivorous caseid synapsids that lived during the late Lower Permian ( Kungurian) and possibly the early Middle Permian ( Roadian) in what is now Texas and Oklahoma in the United States. The large number of specimens found make it the best-known caseid. Like all large herbivorous caseids, ''Cotylorhynchus'' had a short snout sloping forward and very large external nares. The head was very small compared to the size of the body. The latter was massive, barrel-shaped, and ended with a long tail. The limbs were short and robust. The hands and feet had short, broad fingers with powerful claws. The barrel-shaped body must have housed large intestines, suggesting that the animal had to feed on a large quantity of plants of low nutritional value. Caseids are generally considered to be terrestrial, though a semi-aquatic lifestyle has been proposed by some authors. The genus ''Cotylorhynchus'' is represented by three species, the largest of w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angelosaurus
''Angelosaurus'' is an extinct genus of herbivorous caseid synapsids that lived during the late Lower Permian (Kungurian) and early Middle Permian (Roadian) in what is now Texas and Oklahoma in the United States. Like other herbivorous caseids, it had a small head, large barrel-shaped body, long tail, and massive limbs. ''Angelosaurus'' differs from other caseids by the extreme massiveness of its bones, particularly those of the limbs, which show a strong development of ridges, processes, and rugosities for the attachment of muscles and tendons. Relative to its body size, the limbs of ''Angelosaurus'' were shorter and wider than those of other caseids. The ungual phalanges looked more like hooves than claws. The few known cranial elements show that the skull was short and more robust than that of the other representatives of the group. ''Angelosaurus'' is also distinguished by its bulbous teeth with shorter and wider crowns than those of other caseids. Their morphology and the hig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euromycter
''Euromycter'' is an extinct genus of caseid synapsids that lived in what is now southern France during the Early Permian (late Artinskian) about 285 million years ago. The holotype and only known specimen of ''Euromycter'' ( MNHN.F.MCL-2) includes the complete skull with lower jaws and hyoid apparatus, six cervical vertebrae with proatlas, anterior part of interclavicle, partial right clavicle, right posterior coracoid, distal head of right humerus, left and right radius, left and right ulna, and complete left manus. It was collected by D. Sigogneau-Russell and D. Russell in 1970 at the top of the M1 Member, Grès Rouge Group, near the village of Valady (département of Aveyron), Rodez Basin. It was first assigned to the species ''"Casea" rutena'' by Sigogneau-Russell and Russell in 1974. More recently, it was reassigned to its own genus, ''Euromycter'', by Robert R. Reisz, Hillary C. Maddin, Jörg Fröbisch and Jocelyn Falconnet in 2011. The preserved part of the skeleton ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alierasaurus
''Alierasaurus'' is an extinct genus of caseid synapsid that lived during the early Guadalupian, Middle Permian (Roadian) in what is now Sardinia. It is represented by a single species, the type species ''Alierasaurus ronchii''. Known from a very large partial skeleton found within the Cala del Vino Formation, ''Alierasaurus'' is one of the largest known caseids. It closely resembles ''Cotylorhynchus'', another giant caseid from the San Angelo Formation in Texas. The dimensions of the preserved foot elements and caudal vertebrae suggest an estimated total length of about for ''Alierasaurus''. In fact, the only anatomical features that differ between ''Alierasaurus'' and ''Cotylorhynchus'' are found in the bones of the feet; ''Alierasaurus'' has a longer and thinner fourth metatarsal and it has ungual bones at the tips of the toes that are pointed and claw-like rather than flattened as in other caseids. ''Alierasaurus'' and ''Cotylorhynchus'' both have very wide, barrel-shaped ri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oromycter
''Oromycter'' is an extinct genus of caseid synapsids from the Early Permian of Oklahoma. The sole and type species, ''Oromycter dolesorum'', was named in 2005 by Robert R. Reisz.Reisz, R. R. 2005. ''Oromycter'', a New Caseid from the Lower Permian of Oklahoma. ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'' 25 (4): 905-910. Description ''Oromycter'' was a small caseid characterized by its dentition, which lacked the distinct leaf-like serrations of other caseids and instead possessed broad, spatulate and roughened cutting edges. Its teeth were also more thoroughly attached to the bone of the skull and jaw than in other members of Caseidae. The first and second teeth of the premaxilla show distinct wear facets which suggest that they occluded with the first and second teeth of the dentary, possibly to facilitate the cropping of vegetation. Its lacrimal bone, while clearly caseid in form, appears more primitive than in any other known caseid. Classification ''Oromycter'' is the oldest a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruthenosaurus
''Ruthenosaurus'' is an extinct genus of caseid synapsids that lived in what is now southern France during the Early Permian (late Artinskian) about 285 million years ago. It is known from the holotype MNHN.F.MCL-1 an articulated partial postcranial skeleton. It was collected by D. Sigogneau-Russell and D. Russell in 1970 in the upper part of the M2 Member, Grès Rouge Group, in the Rodez Basin, near the village of Valady (département of Aveyron), in Occitanie Region. It was first named by Robert R. Reisz, Hillary C. Maddin, Jörg Fröbisch and Jocelyn Falconnet in 2011, and the type species is ''Ruthenosaurus russellorum''. Etymology Ruthenosaurus is named after a Gallic regional tribe, Ruthenie (in Medieval Latin), that have also given ''Ruthénois'', the name of the inhabitants of the town of Rodez; and the Ancient Greek ''sauros'', "lizard". The type species is named in honour of Drs Denise Sigogneau-Russell and Donald E. Russell, the original collectors of the ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phreatophasma
''Phreatophasma'' is an extinct genus of synapsids from the Middle Permian of European Russia. It includes only one species, ''Phreatophasma aenigmatum'', which is itself known from a single femur found in a mine near the town of Belebei in Bashkortostan. ''Phreatophasma'' comes from a fossil assemblage that is latest Ufimian to earliest Kazanian in age under the Russian stratigraphic scheme, correlating with the Roadian Age (earliest Middle Permian, about 270 million years ago) under the international stratigraphic timescale. Because the species is based on a single specimen with few diagnostic anatomical features, uncertainty remains as to where it belongs in tetrapod phylogeny; originally interpreted in 1954 as an enigmatic " theromorph" synapsid (hence its species name ''aenigmatum'') by Soviet paleontologist Ivan Yefremov, ''Phreatophasma'' was later described as a therapsid ''incertae sedis'' by American paleontologist Alfred Romer in 1956 and then as a member of a basal s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lalieudorhynchus
''Lalieudorhynchus'' is an extinct genus of caseid synapsids that lived during the Guadalupian (= Middle Permian) in what is now the south of France. The genus is only known by its type species, ''Lalieudorhynchus gandi'', which was named in 2022 by Ralf Werneburg, Frederik Spindler, Jocelyn Falconnet, Jean-Sébastien Steyer, Monique Vianey-Liaud, and Joerg W. Schneider. ''Lalieudorhynchus'' is represented by a partial postcranial skeleton discovered in the Lodève basin in the central part of the Hérault department in the Occitanie region. It belongs to an individual measuring approximately in length. The degree of ossification of its bones, however, indicates that it was a late juvenile or still growing young adult. Based on the internal structure of its bones, the describing authors interpreted ''Lalieudorhynchus'' as a semiaquatic animal that may have had a lifestyle similar to that of hippopotamus, spending part of its time in water but returning to land for food, thoug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Synapsid
Synapsids + (, 'arch') > () "having a fused arch"; synonymous with ''theropsids'' (Greek, "beast-face") are one of the two major groups of animals that evolved from basal amniotes, the other being the sauropsids, the group that includes reptiles and birds. The group includes mammals and every animal more closely related to mammals than to sauropsids. Unlike other amniotes, synapsids have a single temporal fenestra, an opening low in the skull roof behind each eye orbit, leaving a bony arch beneath each; this accounts for their name. The distinctive temporal fenestra developed about 318 million years ago during the Late Carboniferous period, when synapsids and sauropsids diverged, but was subsequently merged with the orbit in early mammals. Traditionally, non-mammalian synapsids were believed to have evolved from reptiles, and therefore described as mammal-like reptiles in classical systematics, and primitive synapsids were also referred to as pelycosaurs, or pelycosaur- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Callibrachion
''Callibrachion'' is an extinct genus of caseid synapsids that lived in east-central France during the Lower Permian (Asselian). The holotype and only known specimen ( MNHN.F.AUT490) is represented by an almost complete postcranial skeleton associated with skull fragments discovered at the end of the 19th century in the Permian Autun basin in Saône-et-Loire department, in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. It belongs to an immature individual measuring less than 1.50 m in length. ''Callibrachion'' was long considered a junior synonym of the genus ''Haptodus'' and classified among the sphenacodontid pelycosaurs. In 2015, a new study found that ''Callibrachion'' was a different animal from ''Haptodus'' and that it was a caseasaur rather than a sphenacodontid. This was confirmed in 2016 by a cladistic analysis which recovered ''Callibrachion'' as a basal caseid. ''Callibrachions sharp teeth and unenlarged ribcage indicate that this animal was likely faunivorous. Description ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
