''Turfanodon'' 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

from the

Late Permian Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

Sunan, Guodikeng, and

Naobaogou Formation The Naobaogou Formation is a geological formation in the Daqing Mountains of China. It is likely of Lopingian age. It consists of three rhythms of sediment, labelled members I-III primarily of purple siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurol ...

s of China. The holotype of ''T. bogdaensis'' was discovered between 1963-1964 and was originally named in 1973 by A. Sun with 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 specime ...

''Turfanodon bogdaensis'', ''Turfanodon'' was reclassified as a junior synonym of the related ''

Dicynodon ''Dicynodon'' ("two dog-teeth") is a genus of dicynodont therapsid that flourished during the Upper Permian period. Like all dicynodonts, it was herbivorous animal. This reptile was toothless, except for prominent tusks, hence the name. It proba ...

'' in 1988 by G. M. King. ''T. bogdaensis'' remained a species of ''Dicynodon'' for over two decades before the genus was reinstated in 2011 in a revision of the taxonomy of ''Dicynodon'' by

palaeontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Christian Kammerer. A second species from

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

, ''T. jiufengensis'', was named in 2021 by palaeontologist Jun Liu from a nearly complete skeleton and other referred bones. ''Turfanodon'' was a relatively large dicynodont, and similar in appearance to the related '' Daptocephalus'' from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

References

Dicynodonts Anomodont genera Permian synapsids of Asia Lopingian genus extinctions Permian China Fossils of China Paleontology in Xinjiang Fossil taxa described in 1973 {{anomodont-stub