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''Ianthasaurus'' is an extinct genus of small
It is one of the smallest edaphosaurids known, with an skull and a total body length of . ''Ianthasaurus'' lacks many of the spectacular specializations seen in '' Edaphosaurus''. For example, the marginal dentition of ''Ianthasaurus'' is similar to that of insectivorous
edaphosaurids
Edaphosauridae is a family of mostly large (up to 3 meters or more) Late Carboniferous to Early Permian synapsids. Edaphosaur fossils are so far known only from North America and Europe.
Characteristics
They were the earliest known herbivore, he ...
from the Late Carboniferous
The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...
.
Description
It is one of the smallest edaphosaurids known, with an skull and a total body length of . ''Ianthasaurus'' lacks many of the spectacular specializations seen in '' Edaphosaurus''. For example, the marginal dentition of ''Ianthasaurus'' is similar to that of insectivorous reptile
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...
s, with slender conical teeth which are slightly recurved at the tips, and there is a slight development of a caniniform
In mammalian oral anatomy, the canine teeth, also called cuspids, dog teeth, or (in the context of the upper jaw) fangs, eye teeth, vampire teeth, or vampire fangs, are the relatively long, pointed teeth. They can appear more flattened howeve ...
region. The palatal and mandibular dentition is unspecialized, and there are no batteries of teeth for crushing of plant
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...
materials. Also unlike '' Edaphosaurus'', ''Ianthasaurus'' was lightly built and was probably quite agile. The skull was similar to that of '' Haptodus'', a sphenacodontid, though they were distantly related.
Discovery
It was named byRobert R. Reisz
Robert Rafael Reisz is a Canadian paleontologist and specialist in the study of early amniote and tetrapod evolution.
Research career
Reisz received his B.Sc. (1969), M.Sc. (1971) and Ph.D. (1975) from McGill University as Robert L. Carroll ...
and David Berman in 1986. It was discovered by them in the Upper Pennsylvanian Rock Lake Shale near Garnett, Kansas
Garnett is a city in and the county seat of Anderson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 3,242.
History
Garnett was platted in 1857. Garnett is named for W. A. Garnett, a native of Louisville, ...
.
See also
*List of pelycosaurs
This list of pelycosaurs is an attempt to create a comprehensive listing of all genera that have ever been included in the synapsida excluding therapsida and purely vernacular terms. The list includes all commonly accepted genera, but also genera t ...
References
Edaphosaurids Prehistoric synapsid genera Carboniferous synapsids Carboniferous synapsids of North America Taxa named by Robert R. Reisz Fossil taxa described in 1986 {{paleo-synapsid-stub