The Tapinocephalia are one of the major groups of

dinocephalia Dinocephalians (terrible heads) are a clade of large-bodied early therapsids that flourished in the Early and Middle Permian between 279.5 and 260 million years ago (Ma), but became extinct during the Capitanian mass extinction event. Dinocephal ...

therapsids 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 mo ...

and the major herbivorous group. Tapinocephalia has been found to consist of three clades: Styracocephalidae,

Titanosuchidae Titanosuchidae is an extinct family of dinocephalians. The titanosuchids were carnivorous to omnivorous (herbivorous?) tapinocephalians. As with other tapinocephalians, they had thick skulls probably for head-butting. They had large canine teet ...

, and the very successful

Tapinocephalidae Tapinocephalidae was an advanced family of tapinocephalians. It is defined as the clade containing '' Ulemosaurus'', ''Tapinocaninus'', and the Tapinocephalinae. They are known from both Russia and South Africa. In all probability, the Tapinocep ...

. Notable tapinocephalians include ''

Moschops ''Moschops'' (Greek for "calf face") is an extinct genus of therapsids that lived in the Guadalupian epoch, around 265–260 million years ago. They were heavily built plant eaters, and they may have lived partly in water, as hippopotamuses do. ...

'', '' Tapinocephalus'', and ''

Titanosuchus ''Titanosuchus ferox'' ("Fierce titan crocodile") is an extinct species of dinocephalian therapsids that lived in the Middle Permian epoch in South Africa. Along with its close relatives, ''Jonkeria'' and ''Moschops'', ''Titanosuchus'' inhabited ...

''.

Description

Unlike anteosaurs and

estemmenosuchid Estemmenosuchidae is an extinct family of large, very early herbivorous therapsids that flourished during the Guadalupian period. They are distinguished by horn-like structures, probably for display or agonistic behavior. Apart from the best kno ...

s, tapinocephalians are primarily an African group. The

s and

pareiasaur Pareiasaurs (meaning "cheek lizards") are an extinct clade of large, herbivorous parareptiles. Members of the group were armoured with scutes which covered large areas of the body. They first appeared in southern Pangea during the Middle Permi ...

s may have occupied this paleo-bovine niche in the north. Only one tapinocephalian, '' Ulemosaurus'', is known from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

. Earlier tapinocephalians were

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other ...

omnivorous An omnivore () is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nut ...

. One such group was

, which consisted of long-tailed predators that hunted herbivorous

. Later tapinocephalians were herbivorous.

Notes

External links

Tapinocephalia
at Palaeos
Dinocephalia
at Palaeocritti Guadalupian first appearances Guadalupian extinctions {{Paleo-therapsid-stub