''Ianthasaurus'' is an extinct genus of small

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 herbivorous a ...

from the Late Carboniferous.

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 ''Edaphosaurus'' (, meaning "pavement lizard" for dense clusters of teeth) is a genus of extinct edaphosaurid synapsids that lived in what is now North America and Europe around 303.4 to 272.5 million years ago, during the Late Carboniferous to ...

''. For example, the marginal dentition of ''Ianthasaurus'' is similar to that of insectivorous reptiles, with slender conical teeth which are slightly recurved at the tips, and there is a slight development of a caniniform 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 exclu ...

materials. Also unlike ''

'', ''Ianthasaurus'' was lightly built and was probably quite agile. The skull was similar to that of ''

Haptodus ''Haptodus'' is an extinct genus of basal sphenacodont, member of the clade that includes therapsids and hence, mammals. It was at least in length. It lived in present-day France during the Early Permian. It was a medium-sized predator, feeding ...

'', a

sphenacodontid Sphenacodontidae (Greek: "wedge point tooth family") is an extinct family (biology), family of small to large, advanced, carnivore, carnivorous, Late Pennsylvanian to Guadalupian, middle Permian pelycosaurs. The most recent one, ''Dimetrodon ang ...

, though they were distantly related.

Discovery

It was named by Robert R. Reisz 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, ...

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

Description

Discovery

See also

References