Biarmosuchia

Biarmosuchia
	Skeletal reconstruction of Biarmosuchus tener
Temporal occurrence
	Oberperm ( Capitanium )
	265 to 260.5 million years
Locations
	Russia; China; South Africa;
Systematics
	Vertebrates (vertebrata)
	Land vertebrates (Tetrapoda)
	Amniotes (Amniota)
	Synapsids (Synapsida)
	Therapsids (Therapsida)
	Biarmosuchia
Scientific name
	Biarmosuchia
	Sigogneau-Russell , 1989

The Biarmosuchia , also called Eotitanosuchia or Phthinosuchia , were terrestrial vertebrates from the Therapsiden group ("mammal-like reptiles"). They were among the oldest and most primitive Therapsids and lived during the Upper Permian .

features

The skull was large, high, convexly curved dorsally (on top) and still largely corresponds to that of the Sphenacodontidae . The orbit (bony eye socket) was large, a sclerotic ring protected the eye. The preparietal , an unpaired bone in front of the parietal bone, was missing. A single canine tooth was much larger than all the other teeth; the teeth following this were smaller than those of the Sphenacodontidae.

Systematics

Proburnetia

Burnetiidae

The Burnetiidae family includes two small, very similar Biarmosuchidae, Burnetia from South Africa and Proburnetia from Russia. Both were carnivores. Their skulls were eight inches long and covered with all sorts of bony outgrowths.

At first they were classified as Dinocephalas or Gorgonopsids , but the lack of all derived characteristics of these groups places the Burnetiidae in the primitive Biarmosuchia.

The sister species of the Burnetiidae is the South African Lemurosaurus .

literature

Thomas S. Kemp: The Origin & Evolution of Mammals. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005. ISBN 0198507615 .
Robert L. Carroll : Paleontology and Evolution of the Vertebrates , Thieme, Stuttgart (1993), ISBN 3-13774-401-6
Oskar Kuhn: The mammal-like reptiles . A. Ziemsen Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-89432-797-9

Web links

Commons : Biarmosuchia - collection of images, videos and audio files

The Paleobiology Database * Biarmosuchia