''Datheosaurus'' is an extinct

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 caseasaur. It was at least in length. It lived during the Latest Carboniferous to Early

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

Discovery and history

It was originally described in 1905 on a basis of a specimen from late Carboniferous deposits in Poland. It was later considered a synonym of ''

Haptodus ''Haptodus'' is an extinct genus of basal sphenacodont, member of the clade that includes therapsids and hence, mammals. It was at least in length. It lived in present-day France during the Early Permian. It was a medium-sized predator, feeding ...

'' by several authors, but subsequent examination has found it be a caseid rather a sphenacodont. This was confirmed by cladistic analysis, which recovered ''Datheosaurus'' as a basal

caseid 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, Oklaho ...

References

Caseasaurs Prehistoric synapsid genera Carboniferous synapsids Cisuralian synapsids of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1904 {{Paleo-synapsid-stub