Description
When broadly looking at the skull, there are well developed “cheeks”, bosses, and pits that resemble Pareiasaurians. However, the small temporal fossa distinguishes it from the Cotylosaur. The overall shape resembles a triangle. In the nasals, there is a bulging expansion of bone. Unlike proburnetia's median nasal bridge being long, narrow, and raised, Burnetia is splindle-shaped. The median nasal boss is spindle-shaped The snout is wide and blunt. The large preorbital pits on the lachrymal are significant. Over the orbit there are notable ridges on the prefrontal and frontal. The supra-orbital ridges make the orbits face distally and posteriorly. The suborbital eminence is subdivided into distinguished portions. The small pineal foramen sits dorsally on a boss. ''Burnetia’s'' palate is similar to Gorgonopsians. Anteriorly, the internal nares have the lower canines. The maxilla is adjacent to the palatine, and posterior to the palatine is the long prevomer that meets the premaxilla. The palatine is tooth bearing, as well as the pterygoid that is just posterior to the palatine. The vomer is held by the surrounding vomerine processes that form the choanae's middle border. Unlike the rest of burnetiamorphs, ''Burnetia’s'' interchoanal part of the vomer is not narrow. The concave occiput is tilted up, which is shown when it is aligned vertically, the snout faces downward. The supraoccipital sits anterior to the paraoccipital. The size of the basioccipital is considered to be small. The majority of the occipital surface, posterior “horn”, and posterior lateral margins are made from the squamosal. The basisphenoid in ''Burnetia'' differs from Gorgonopsians. In Burnetia, their basisphenoid is round and shallow. In the middle of the basisphenoid, it is separated by a groove. Gorgonopsians’ basisphenoid contrasts ''Burnetia’s'' by having a “single sharp median keel”.Discovery
Broom found ''Burnetia mirabilis'' in the Dicynodon Assemblage Zone near Graaff-Reinet, South Africa. Broom concluded that ''Burnetia'' was related closest to the group of Gorgonopsians. However Broom made observations based on the skull when it was covered by matrix and no underlying bone was visible. Lieuwe Boonstra removed this matrix and found that ''Burnetia'' and Gorgonopsians differed mainly by the thickening of dermal bones, bosses, and their basisphenoids.Paleoenvironment
Phylogenetic analysis done by Ashley Kruger suggests that a likely origin for burnetiamorphs could be southern Africa. The base and oldest burnetiamorphs are found in South Africa.Classification and related taxa
The family Burnetiidae came from the discovery of ''Burnetia'', but new discoveries led to the studies of burnetiamorphs. Burnetiamorphs only have about two taxa that represent each genus. It was previously believed that the Burnetiidae clade only contained two taxa, Burnetia mirabilis and Proburnetia viatkensis, but later ''Pachydectes'' and Bullacephalus were found to be included in the clade, as well. It was unable to be confirmed if ''Pachydectes'' shared the feature of nasal the nasal supporting a middle boss like ''Burnetia.'' However, like ''Burnetia,'' above the postrbital bar they have a significant boss. ''Lycaenodon longiceps'' is in the clade Biarmosuchia and has some similarities to ''Burnetia''. Both ''Lycaenodon'' and ''Burnetia'' likely had a large formamen, surrounded by the vomer and vomerine process. This foramen implies that in biamosuchians, the vomeronasal organ may have communicated with the oral cavity. They also share the trait of having a long vomerine process. The first burnetiid therapsid found in Tanzania's Usili Formation was found to most resemble ''Burnetia''. The Usili burnetiid and ''Burnetia'' both had bosses above their orbits that were ”S”-like.References
Burnetiamorphs Prehistoric therapsid genera Lopingian synapsids of Africa Fossil taxa described in 1923 Taxa named by Robert Broom Lopingian genus first appearances Lopingian genus extinctions {{Paleo-therapsid-stub