Kistecephalia is a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

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, typicall ...

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. The group was first named in 1894, and was reinstated as a clade in 2009. Kistecephalia is a

stem-based taxon Phylogenetic nomenclature is a method of nomenclature for taxa in biology that uses phylogenetic definitions for taxon names as explained below. This contrasts with the traditional approach, in which taxon names are defined by a '' type'', which ...

defined as all taxa more closely related to '' Cistecephalus microrhinus'' than '' Emydops arctatus''. It includes the families

Myosauridae ''Myosaurus'' is an extinct genus of dicynodont found primarily in Antarctica and South Africa. History The family Myosauridae is known only from fossilized skull specimens. The family is distinguished from other families in the infraorder Dicyn ...

, Kingoriidae, and

Cistecephalidae Cistecephalidae is an extinct family (biology), family of dicynodont therapsids from the Late Permian of South Africa, India and Zambia. It includes the genera ''Cistecephalus'', ''Cistecephaloides'', and ''Kawingasaurus''. Cistecephalids are tho ...

and is part of the larger group

Emydopoidea Emydopoidea is a group of Late Permian dicynodont therapsids. It includes the small-bodied ''Emydops'', ''Myosaurus'', and kingoriids, and the burrowing cistecephalids. Below is a cladogram from Kammerer ''et al.'' (2011) showing the phylogenet ...

. Kistecephalians were small in comparison to other dicynodonts. One group of kistecephalians, the cistecephalids, are thought to have been burrowers. Below is a

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ...

from Kammerer ''et al.'' (2011) showing the

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 ...

relationships of kistecephalians:

References

Dicynodonts {{anomodont-stub