''Hipposaurus'' ('horse lizard') is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus of basal therapsids known from the ''Tapinocephalus'' Assemblage Zone of the Main

Karoo Basin The Karoo Supergroup is the most widespread stratigraphy, stratigraphic unit in Africa south of the Kalahari Desert. The group (stratigraphy), supergroup consists of a sequence of units, mostly of nonmarine origin, deposited between the Pennsylvan ...

, South Africa. Chronologically this is within the Capitanian stage of the Guadalupian Series (Middle Permian). The genus was first described by S.H. Haughton as ''H. boonstrai'' on the basis of a skull and associated

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

and was later considered a gorgonopsian in the family 'Ictidorhinidae' by Robert Broom. It is now considered a basal biarmosuchian, but its affinities remain uncertain. ''H.boonstrai'' is currently known from only two specimens in the Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town. "''H.brinki''" is based on a single skull that was described by D. Sigogneau in 1970;Sigogneau, D. 1970. Révision systématique des gorgonopsiens Sud Arficains. Cahiers de Paléontologie, Paris.

n French N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

/ref> however, the poor condition of the holotype means most considerations of biarmosuchians ignore it.

References

;General
The main groups of non-mammalian synapsids at Mikko's Phylogeny Archive
Biarmosuchians Prehistoric therapsid genera Guadalupian synapsids of Africa Fossil taxa described in 1929 Taxa named by Sidney H. Haughton Capitanian genus first appearances Capitanian genus extinctions {{paleo-therapsid-stub

See also

References