Burnetiamorpha is a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English ter ...

biarmosuchian Biarmosuchians are an extinct clade of non-mammalian synapsids from the Permian. They are the most basal group of the therapsids. All of them were moderately-sized, lightly-built carnivores, intermediate in form between basal sphenacodont "pelyc ...

therapsid Therapsida is a major group of eupelycosaurian synapsids that includes mammals, their ancestors and relatives. Many of the traits today seen as unique to mammals had their origin within early therapsids, including limbs that were oriented more ...

s. Burnetiamorphs are the most

derived Derive may refer to: *Derive (computer algebra system), a commercial system made by Texas Instruments * ''Dérive'' (magazine), an Austrian science magazine on urbanism *Dérive, a psychogeographical concept See also * *Derivation (disambiguation ...

biarmosuchians. The name Burnetiamorpha has been in use since South African paleontologist

Robert Broom Robert Broom FRS FRSE (30 November 1866 6 April 1951) was a British- South African doctor and palaeontologist. He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1895 and received his DSc in 1905 from the University of Glasgow. From 1903 to 1910, he ...

erected the group in 1923, but it has recently been put to use in phylogenetic classification as a clade including

Burnetiidae Burnetiidae is an extinct family of biarmosuchian therapsids that lived in the Permian period whose fossils are found in South Africa and Russia. It contains ''Bullacephalus'', ''Burnetia'', '' Mobaceras'', ''Niuksenitia'', ''Paraburnetia'' a ...

and its closest relatives, including ''

Lemurosaurus ''Lemurosaurus'' is a genus of extinct biarmosuchian therapsids from the Late Permian of South Africa. The generic epithet ''Lemursaurus'' is a mix of Latin, lemures “ghosts, spirits”, and Greek, sauros, “lizard”. ''Lemurosaurus'' is eas ...

'', ''

Lophorhinus ''Lophorhinus'' is an extinct genus of biarmosuchian therapsids from the Late Permian of South Africa. The type species ''L. willodenensis'' was named in 2007. It is known from the anterior Standard anatomical terms of location are used to ...

'', and ''

Lobalopex ''Lobalopex'' is an extinct genus of biarmosuchian Biarmosuchians are an extinct clade of non-mammalian synapsids from the Permian. They are the most basal group of the therapsids. All of them were moderately-sized, lightly-built carnivores, ...

''.

Phylogeny

Below is a

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...

modified from Sidor and Smith (2007) showing the phylogenetic position of Burnetiamorpha among biarmosuchians:

References

Guadalupian first appearances Lopingian extinctions Fossil taxa described in 1923 Taxa named by Robert Broom {{paleo-Therapsid-stub