''Tapinocephalus'' ("humble head") is an extinct
genus of large
herbivorous dinocephalians that lived during the Middle
Permian Period. These stocky, barrel-bodied animals were characterised by a massive bony skull roof and short weak snout. It is thought that, like the rest of the members of its
family, the animals engaged in head-butting
intraspecific behavior, possibly for
territory or mates.
The
fossil remains (
skull and
postcranial elements) of ''Tapinocephalus'' are known from the Lower, Middle, and Upper part of the
''Tapinocephalus'' Assemblage Zone (
Capitanian age) of the
Lower Beaufort Beds of the
South African
Karoo
The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...
. Only the
type species, ''T. atherstonei'' is now considered valid for this genus.
In life, these animals were over in length and massed around , making them among the largest animals of their time.
Classification
''Tapinocephalus atherstonei'' is known from a number of skulls and postcranial bones. The skull is large with a heavily pachyostotic skull roof, a massive bony frontals and a short weak ''
Moschops''-like snout.'' Taurops'' is a synonym. ''
Phocosaurus megischion '' is another synonym differing only in that the transition from the frontals to the snout is not abrupt.
See also
*
List of therapsids
Sources
*
Boonstra, L.D. 1956, "The skull of ''Tapinocephalus'' and its near relatives" ''Annals of the South African Museum'', 43 Part 3 pp. 137–169, 17 figs, plate 4.
* ----- 1969. The fauna of the ''Tapinocephalus'' Zone (Beaufort beds of the Karoo). ''Ann. S. Afr. Mus.'' 56:1–73.
*
King, Gillian M., 1988 "Anomodontia" Part 17 C, Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology, Gutsav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart and New York.
External links
Tapinocephalia - ''Tapinocephalus''- Palaeos
{{Taxonbar, from=Q134559
Tapinocephalians
Prehistoric therapsid genera
Guadalupian synapsids of Africa
Fossil taxa described in 1876
Taxa named by Richard Owen
