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Diademodontidae
Diademodontidae is an extinct family of Triassic gomphodonts. The best-known genus is ''Diademodon'' from South Africa. '' Titanogomphodon'' from Namibia may also be a member of Diademodontidae. The Chinese genera '' Hazhenia'' and '' Ordosiodon'' have also been included in the family, but were more recently identified as baurioid therocephalians. Remains of a diademodontid were reported in the Early-Middle Triassic Fremouw Formation in Antarctica, but that specimen was later referred to the trirachodontid ''Impidens ''Impidens'' is an extinct genus of large omnivorous cynodont from the Triassic of South Africa and Antarctica. Its type and only species is ''Impidens hancoxi''. ''Impidens'' inhabited high-latitude environments of southern Gondwana during the ...'' References Cynognathians Early Triassic first appearances Late Triassic extinctions Prehistoric therapsid families {{paleo-therapsid-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gomphodont
Gomphodontia is a clade of cynognathian cynodonts that includes the families Diademodontidae, Trirachodontidae, and Traversodontidae. Gomphodonts are distinguished by wide and closely spaced molar-like postcanine teeth, which are convergent with those of mammals. Other distinguishing characteristics of gomphodonts include deep zygomatic arches, upper postcanines with three or more cusps spanning their widths and lower postcanines with two cusps spanning their widths. Gomphodonts first appeared in the Early Triassic and became extinct at the end of the Late Triassic. Fossils are known from southern Africa, Argentina and southern Brazil (Paleorrota geopark), eastern North America, Europe, China, and Antarctica. Gomphodontia was first named by paleontologist Harry Seeley in 1895. He considered it an order of wide-toothed therapsids (then called anomodonts) from South Africa, distinct from Cynodontia. By the 1930s Gomphodontia was considered a suborder of Cynodontia and included t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cynognathians
Cynognathia ("dog jaw") is one of two major clades of cynodonts, the other being Probainognathia. Cynognathians included the large carnivorous genus ''Cynognathus'' and the herbivorous traversodontids. Cynognathians can be identified by several synapomorphies including a very deep zygomatic arch that extends above the middle of the orbit. Cynognathian fossils are currently known from Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America and South America. Taxonomy *Suborder Cynodontia **Infraorder Eucynodontia ***(unranked) Cynognathia ****Family Cynognathidae *****''Cynognathus'' ****(unranked) Gomphodontia *****Family Diademodontidae ******''Diademodon'' ******'' Titanogomphodon'' *****(unranked) Neogomphodontia ******Family Trirachodontidae *******Subfamily Trirachodontinae ********''Langbergia'' ********'' Trirachodon'' *******Subfamily Sinognathinae ********''Beishanodon'' ********'' Sinognathus'' ********''Cricodon'' ******Family Traversodontidae *******'' Etjoia'' *******'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fremouw Formation
The Fremouw Formation is a Triassic-age rock formation in the Transantarctic Mountains of Antarctica. It contains the oldest known fossils of tetrapods from Antarctica, including synapsids, reptiles and amphibians. Fossilized trees have also been found. The formation's beds were deposited along the banks of rivers and on floodplains. During the Triassic, the area would have been a riparian forest at 70–75°S latitude. Stratigraphy The Fremouw Formation is mostly Triassic in age, with the oldest rocks dating back to the latest Permian. Much of the formation is quartzose sandstone that was deposited in stream beds. It overlies the Permian Buckley Formation, which consists of coal and ''Glossopteris'' fossils. The formation is informally divided into lower, middle, and upper units. Most fossils are found in the Lower Fremouw Formation. Here, bones are preserved in fine grained siltstones and mudstones, coarse grained channel sandstones, and conglomerates. Paleoenvironment W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Triassic
In the geologic timescale, the Middle Triassic is the second of three epochs of the Triassic period or the middle of three series in which the Triassic system is divided in chronostratigraphy. The Middle Triassic spans the time between Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Early Triassic Epoch and followed by the Late Triassic Epoch. The Middle Triassic is divided into the Anisian and Ladinian ages or stages. Formerly the middle series in the Triassic was also known as Muschelkalk. This name is now only used for a specific unit of rock strata with approximately Middle Triassic age, found in western Europe. Middle Triassic fauna Following the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the most devastating of all mass-extinctions, life recovered slowly. In the Middle Triassic, many groups of organisms reached higher diversity again, such as the marine reptiles (e.g. ichthyosaurs, sauropterygians, thallatosaurs), ray-finned fish and many invertebrate groups like ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diademodon Tetragonus
''Diademodon'' is an extinct genus of cynodonts. It was about long. Discovery Harry Seeley had found his fossil in the Burgersdorp Formation of the Beaufort Group in the Karoo Basin of South Africa. As late as 1988, ''Diademodon'' had been considered a Gophodont due to its transversely expanded cheek teeth, however, it has since been placed in the Cynodont order due to significant differences in skull morphology. Additional species were named by paleontologist A. S. Brink in 1979, although they are now considered synonyms of the type species ''Diademodon tetragonus''. Fossils of the ''Diademodon tetragonus'' have more recently been found in the Omingonde Formation of Namibia, the Fremouw Formation of Antarctica, the Ntawere Formation of Zambia and the Río Seco de la Quebrada Formation in Mendoza Province, Argentina. Although ''Diademodon'' is the most well accepted name for the genera to date, it was originally named ''Cynochampsa laniarius'' by Owen in 1860. The propo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Family (biology)
Family ( la, familia, plural ') is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". What belongs to a family—or if a described family should be recognized at all—are proposed and determined by practicing taxonomists. There are no hard rules for describing or recognizing a family, but in plants, they can be characterized on the basis of both vegetative and reproductive features of plant species. Taxonomists often take different positions about descriptions, and there may be no broad consensus across the scientific community for some time. The publishing of new data and opini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Triassic
The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period of the Mesozoic Era. Both the start and end of the period are marked by major extinction events. The Triassic Period is subdivided into three epochs: Early Triassic, Middle Triassic and Late Triassic. The Triassic began in the wake of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, which left the Earth's biosphere impoverished; it was well into the middle of the Triassic before life recovered its former diversity. Three categories of organisms can be distinguished in the Triassic record: survivors from the extinction event, new groups that flourished briefly, and other new groups that went on to dominate the Mesozoic Era. Reptiles, especially archosaurs, were the chief terrestrial vertebrates during this time. A specialized subgroup of archo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diademodon
''Diademodon'' is an extinct genus of cynodonts. It was about long. Discovery Harry Seeley had found his fossil in the Burgersdorp Formation of the Beaufort Group in the Karoo Basin of South Africa. As late as 1988, ''Diademodon'' had been considered a Gophodont due to its transversely expanded cheek teeth, however, it has since been placed in the Cynodont order due to significant differences in skull morphology. Additional species were named by paleontologist A. S. Brink in 1979, although they are now considered synonyms of the type species ''Diademodon tetragonus''. Fossils of the ''Diademodon tetragonus'' have more recently been found in the Omingonde Formation of Namibia, the Fremouw Formation of Antarctica, the Ntawere Formation of Zambia and the Río Seco de la Quebrada Formation in Mendoza Province, Argentina. Although ''Diademodon'' is the most well accepted name for the genera to date, it was originally named ''Cynochampsa laniarius'' by Owen in 1860. The proposed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Titanogomphodon
''Titanogomphodon'' is an extinct genus of diademodontid cynodonts from the Middle Triassic Omingonde Formation of Namibia. It is known from a single partial skull that was described in 1973 from the Omingonde Formation. The type and only species is ''Titanogomphodon crassus''. At about , the skull of ''Titanogomphodon'' was significantly larger than that of its closest relative, '' Diademodon'' (hundreds of skulls of ''Diademodon'' are known and none exceed in length). Its teeth are similar to those of another group of cynodonts called Traversodontidae, but the similarities are likely the result of convergent evolution. Aside from its larger size, ''Titanogomphodon'' differs from ''Diademodon'' in having a bony projection on the postorbital bar behind the eye socket. Diet Like ''Diademodon'', ''Titanogomphodon'' was probably herbivorous. It is part of a very diverse fossil assemblage in the Omingonde Formation that includes several other types of cynodonts, including ''Diade ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hazhenia
''Hazhenia'' is an extinct genus of therocephalian therapsids from the Early Triassic of China, of which ''Hazhenia concava'' is the only species. ''Hazhenia'' was named in 1981 from the Heshanggou Formation in the Ordos Desert of Inner Mongolia. It lived during the Olenekian Age of the Early Triassic, about 247 million years ago. ''Hazhenia'' belongs to a group of therocephalians called Baurioidea and possesses many mammal-like features such as cusped teeth and a secondary palate, both of which evolved independently in baurioids. Within Baurioidea it is most closely related to the genus '' Ordosiodon'', which is also known from Inner Mongolia but comes from the slightly younger Ermaying Formation. Both genera were once placed in the family Ordosiidae, but as the name is preoccupied by a family of Cambrian trilobites, it is no longer valid. ''Hazhenia'' is known from a single skull that was discovered by a group from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropolog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ordosiodon
''Ordosiodon'' is an extinct genus of therocephalian therapsids from the Early Triassic of China. It includes two species, ''O. lincheyuensis'' and ''O. youngi''. ''O. lincheyuensis'', the type species, was named by Chinese paleontologist C. C. Young (Yang Zhongjian) in 1961 on the basis of a partial lower jaw. The jaw was discovered by a petroleum survey team in October 1958 from the Lower Ermaying Formation in Shanxi Province, which dates back to the Olenekian stage. Young named the genus after the Ordos Desert, the region where the jaw was found. ''Ordosiodon'' was originally identified as a type of diademodontid by Young (diademodontids are herbivorous cynodonts that are much more closely related to mammals than are therocephalians). Young noted several unusual features of ''Ordosiodon'' that set it apart from diademodontids, including the lack of a diastema or gap in the teeth, the lack of molar-like sectorial teeth at the back of the jaw, conical caniniform teeth, and relat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baurioid
Baurioidea is a superfamily of therocephalian therapsids. It includes advanced therocephalians such as ''Regisaurus'' and ''Bauria''. The superfamily was named by South African paleontologist Robert Broom in 1911. Bauriamorpha, named by D. M. S. Watson and Alfred Romer in 1956, is a junior synonym of Baurioidea. Many baurioids were once placed in a group called Scaloposauria. Scaloposaurs were characterized by their small size and reduced postorbital bar (a strut of bone behind the eye socket). Scaloposauria is no longer recognized as a valid taxon because it likely represents juvenile forms of many groups of therocephalians. Most scaloposaurs, including ''Scaloposaurus'' and ''Regisaurus'', are now classified in various positions within Bauroidea. Many therocephalians once classified as scaloposaurians are now considered basal baurioids. The classification of these species is uncertain, as there have been no comprehensive phylogenetic analyses of scaloposaurian taxa. The validit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
