''Ictidorhinus'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

biarmosuchia Biarmosuchians are an extinct clade of non-mammalian synapsids from the Permian. They are the most basal group of the therapsids. All of them were moderately-sized, lightly-built carnivores, intermediate in form between basal sphenacodont "pelyc ...

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 ...

s. Fossils have been found from the ''Dicynodon'' Assemblage Zone of the

Beaufort Group The Beaufort Group is the third of the main subdivisions of the Karoo Supergroup in South Africa. It is composed of a lower Adelaide Subgroup and an upper Tarkastad Subgroup. It follows conformably after the Ecca Group and unconformably underlie ...

in the

Karoo Basin The Karoo Supergroup is the most widespread stratigraphy, stratigraphic unit in Africa south of the Kalahari Desert. The group (stratigraphy), supergroup consists of a sequence of units, mostly of nonmarine origin, deposited between the Pennsylvan ...

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

and are of

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, ...

age. It had a short snout and proportionally large orbits. These characteristics may be representative of a juvenile animal, possibly of ''

Lycaenodon ''Lycaenodon'' is an extinct genus of biarmosuchian therapsids from the Late Permian of South Africa. It is known from a single species, ''Lycaenodon longiceps'', which was named by South African paleontologist Robert Broom in 1925. Both are smal ...

''. However, these two genera are not known to have existed at the same time, making it unlikely for ''Ictidorhinus'' material to be from a juvenile form of ''Lycaenodon''. Sidor, C. A. and Rubidge, B. S. (2006). ''Herpetoskylax hopsoni'', a new biarmosuchian (Therapsida: Biarmosuchia) from the Beaufort Group in South Africa. ''In:'' Matthew T. Carrano, Timothy J. Gaudin, Richard W. Blob and John R. Wible, eds., ''Amniote Paeobiology''. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. pp. 96. ''Ictidorhinus'' is the best-known representative of the family Ictidorhinidae, named by South African paleontologist

Robert Broom Robert Broom FRS FRSE (30 November 1866 6 April 1951) was a British- South African doctor and palaeontologist. He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1895 and received his DSc in 1905 from the University of Glasgow. From 1903 to 1910, he ...

in 1932. Many biarmosuchians have been identified as ictidorhinids since the family was first named, mostly on the basis of their small size. Several biarmosuchians from Russia have been classified as ictidorhinids on the basis of partial jaw bones alone. Recent

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

studies of biarmosuchians have found that Ictidorhinidae is a

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

collection of species that fall outside the more

derived Derive may refer to: * Derive (computer algebra system), a commercial system made by Texas Instruments * ''Dérive'' (magazine), an Austrian science magazine on urbanism *Dérive, a psychogeographical concept See also * *Derivation (disambiguatio ...

clade

Burnetiamorpha Burnetiamorpha is a clade of biarmosuchian therapsids. Burnetiamorphs are the most Synapomorphy, derived biarmosuchians. The name Burnetiamorpha has been in use since South African paleontologist Robert Broom erected the group in 1923, but it has ...

References

The main groups of non-mammalian synapsids at Mikko's Phylogeny Archive

External links

''Ictidorhinus''
in the

Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals, plants, and microorganisms. History The Paleobiology Database (PBDB) originated in the NCEAS-funded Phanerozoic Marine Pale ...

Biarmosuchians Prehistoric therapsid genera Lopingian synapsids of Africa Fossil taxa described in 1913 Taxa named by Robert Broom Lopingian genus first appearances Lopingian genus extinctions {{paleo-therapsid-stub