''Lycaenops'' ("wolf-face") is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of
carnivorous
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...
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. It lived during the
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 ± 0. ...
to the early Late Permian, about 260 mya, in what is now
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
.
Description
''Lycaenops'' measured about and weighed up to .
[Gorgonopsia]
/ref> Like the modern-day wolves from which it takes its name, ''Lycaenops'' had a long and slender skull, with a set of dog-like fangs
A fang is a long, pointed tooth. In mammals, a fang is a modified maxillary tooth, used for biting and tearing flesh. In snakes, it is a specialized tooth that is associated with a venom gland (see snake venom). Spiders also have external fangs ...
set into both its upper and lower jaws. These pointed canine teeth were ideal for the use of stabbing and/or tearing at the flesh of any large prey that it came upon. ''Lycaenops'' most likely hunted small vertebrates such as reptiles
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the Class (biology), class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsid, sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, Squamata, squamates (lizar ...
and dicynodont
Dicynodontia is an extinct clade of anomodonts, an extinct type of non-mammalian therapsid. Dicynodonts were herbivorous animals with a pair of tusks, hence their name, which means 'two dog tooth'. Members of the group possessed a horny, typicall ...
s.
''Lycaenops'' walked and ran with its long legs held close to its body. This is a feature found in mammals, but not in more primitive amniote
Amniotes are a clade of tetrapod vertebrates that comprises sauropsids (including all reptiles and birds, and extinct parareptiles and non-avian dinosaurs) and synapsids (including pelycosaurs and therapsids such as mammals). They are disti ...
s, early reptiles, and synapsids such as pelycosaurs, whose legs are positioned to the sides of their bodies. The ability to move like a mammal would have given ''Lycaenops'' an advantage over other land vertebrates, since it would have been able to outrun them.
Species
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 specimen ...
''Lycaenops ornatus'' was named by 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 ...
in 1925. Several other species have also been referred to the genus, including ''L. angusticeps'', which was originally named ''Scymnognathus angusticeps'', ''L. kingwilli'', which was originally named ''Tigricephalus kingwilli'' and is now placed in the genus '' Aelurognathus'', and ''L. tenuirostris'', which was originally named ''Tangagorgon tenuirostris'' and is now in the genus ''Cyonosaurus
''Cyonosaurus'' is a genus of gorgonopsian therapsids from the late Permian and possibly early Triassic of South Africa. ''Cyonosaurus'' was in length, with a skull in length. The type species ''Cyonosaurus longiceps'' was named in 1937.
See ...
''. Two additional species, ''L. microdon'' and ''L. sollasi'', were added to ''Lycaenops'' after having been classified as species of ''Aelurognathus''. The species ''L. minor'' is now considered a synonym of ''L. sollasi''.
Classification
Below is a cladogram from the phylogenetic analysis of Gebauer (2007):
See also
* Evolution of mammals
The evolution of mammals has passed through many stages since the first appearance of their synapsid ancestors in the Pennsylvanian sub-period of the late Carboniferous period. By the mid-Triassic, there were many synapsid species that looked l ...
* List of therapsids
* '' Gorgonops''
References
;Notes
;Sources
The Paleobiology Database
* Broom 1925 : On some carnivorous therapsids. Records of the Albany Museum, vol. 3, n. 4, p. 309–326.
Edwin Р. Colbert «The mammal-like reptile Lycaenops» Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
{{Taxonbar, from=Q132713
Gorgonopsia
Prehistoric therapsid genera
Guadalupian synapsids of Africa
Fossil taxa described in 1925
Lopingian synapsids of Africa
Taxa named by Robert Broom
Guadalupian genus first appearances
Capitanian genera
Wuchiapingian genera
Lopingian genus extinctions