''Anakamacops'' (meaning "similar to ''
Kamacops
''Kamacops'' is a genus of dissorophid temnospondyls known from the Middle to Late Permian of Russia that was described by Yuri Gubin in 1980. It is known from a single species, ''Kamacops acervalis,'' material of which is currently reposited ...
''" in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
) is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
dissorophid temnospondyl
Temnospondyli (from Greek τέμνειν, ''temnein'' 'to cut' and σπόνδυλος, ''spondylos'' 'vertebra') is a diverse order of small to giant tetrapods—often considered primitive amphibians—that flourished worldwide during the Carbo ...
from the early
Middle Permian
The Guadalupian is the second and middle series/ epoch of the Permian. The Guadalupian was preceded by the Cisuralian and followed by the Lopingian. It is named after the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico and Texas, and dates between 272.95 ± ...
of
China. It is known from the right side of a snout that was described in 1999 from the Dashankou locality of the
Xidagou Formation
The Qingtoushan Formation is a Middle Permian-age geologic formation in the Qilian Mountains of Gansu, China. It is known for its diverse tetrapod fauna known as the Dashankou fauna, which likely dates to the Roadian, and includes some of the ol ...
, which is within the city of
Yumen. The
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...
was named ''A. petrolicus'' because Yumen is an oil-producing city (petrol).
More substantial material, including a partial skull and partial mandibles, was described by Liu (2018).
Description
''Anakamacops'' is most similar to ''Kamacops'', sharing features such as a choana widely separated from the interpterygoid vacuities and extensive
exostosis
An exostosis, also known as bone spur, is the formation of new bone on the surface of a bone. Exostoses can cause chronic pain ranging from mild to debilitatingly severe, depending on the shape, size, and location of the lesion. It is most commonl ...
ornamenting the skull roof. Both are large taxa; the most complete specimen of ''Anakamacops'' measures 26 cm in length despite lacking most of the snout. A number of potentially unique features were suggested based on the additional material described by Liu (2018), such as a relatively edentulous (lacking teeth) vomer and paired (rather than a single, unpaired) occipital ridge.
Phylogenetic analysis from Liu (2018)
References
Dissorophids
Permian temnospondyls of Asia
Permian China
Prehistoric animals of China
Prehistoric amphibian genera
{{temnospondyli-stub