''Sauroscaptor'' is a genus of cistecephalid

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, typic ...

from the upper

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 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, containing one species, ''S. tharavati''. It is remarkable for the extreme placement of its pineal foramen, which bulges out of the posterior margin of its skull.

Etymology

''Sauroscaptor'' means "lizard mole" or "lizard digger", and is derived from the Greek word σαῦρος, meaning "lizard", and the Greek word σκάπτω, meaning "digger", which is used as a suffix in the Indian mole genera ''

Euroscaptor ''Euroscaptor'' is a genus of mammal in the family Talpidae. Members are found in China and South & Southeast Asia. It contains the following species as of October 2021: * Greater Chinese mole (''Euroscaptor grandis'') * Kloss's mole (''Euros ...

'' and '' Parascaptor''. The type species, ''S. tharavati'', honors Tharavat S. Kutty, discoverer of the

Kundaram Formation The Kundaram Formation is a geological formation in India, located within the Pranhita–Godavari Basin. The unit is between 250–400 metres thick and at its base consists of sandstone-mudstone alterations, followed by a sequence dominated by re ...

fauna that includes ''Sauroscaptor''.

History

The fossils of ''Sauroscaptor'' show various forms of compression, and were originally interpreted as pertaining to several different genera of dicynodont. However, the shared presence of several unique traits not affected by compression proved that the fossils all belonged to a single endemic species.

Description

''Sauroscaptor'', like most cistecephalids, was a tuskless, small-bodied, fossorial dicyonodont. The posterior margin of its pineal foramen bulges out from the back of the skull, resulting in a chimney-like nuchal crest continuous with the foramen. It has a significantly narrower skull table than is typical for cistecephalids. It is closely similar to an unnamed genus from

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

, which shares the unusual pineal foramen position, but differ in the breadth of the skull table and morphology of the nuchal crest, as well as in the Zambian taxon being the only known tusked cisticephalid.

Classification

''Sauroscaptor'' is the basalmost known cistecephalid dicynodont.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q28311054 Dicynodonts Lopingian life Permian animals of Asia Permian India Fossils of India Fossil taxa described in 2016 Anomodont genera