Dinocephalia

Dinocephalia
Life picture of Moschops capensis
Temporal occurrence
Middle to Upper Perm
272.5 to 251 million years
Locations
Russia South Africa
Systematics
Jaw mouths (Gnathostomata) Land vertebrates (Tetrapoda) Synapsids (Synapsida) Therapsids (Therapsida) Eutherapsida Dinocephalia
Scientific name
Dinocephalia
Seeley , 1895

The Dinocephalia ( Greek : "terrible heads") are a taxon of basal therapsids . These mostly herbivorous animals are classically placed with reptiles , but had many characteristics that are only found in mammals today. Its heyday falls in the Guadalupian , the middle series of the Permian about 270 to 260 million years ago. This line ended with the mass extinction at the Permian-Triassic border about 251 million years ago.

features

The Dinocephalia are characterized by a stocky build and massive skull, which gave them their name.

Anteosaurus

One of the best-known representatives of this group is the approximately five meter long herbivore moschops (Greek: "ox face") from the Permian of South Africa. Another dinocephalian, Anteosaurus , was carnivorous. Because of his physique, he was probably not particularly agile, and it is believed that he hunted clumsy prey like his herbivorous relatives and overpowered them with brute force.

Some Dinocephalians had conspicuous growths on their skulls, such as the presumably herbivorous Estemmenosuchus from Russia . From this, skin impressions were also found, which show that Dinocephalians did not have the typical scaly reptile skin, but rather smooth, perhaps glandular (possibly even hairy) skin and were therefore already mammal-like to a certain extent. They differed significantly from their ancestors, the pelycosaurs : Their heat-saving physique and the texture of their skin suggest speculations about a possible constant body temperature .

Systematics

Stenocybus

Doliosauriscus

Titanosuchus

Tapinocephalus

The Dinocephalia are considered to be the basal (original) but not the most basal group of Therapsids , the more modern Synapsids . They stand at the base of Eutherapsida ( "real Therapsid") called clade whose sister group the biarmosuchia are the basalste group of therapsides.

• Dinocephalia
  • ? Rhopalodon
  • Phreatosuchus
  • Estemmenosuchus
  • Stenocybus
  • Anteosauria
    • Brithopodidae / Anteosauridae
      • Brithopus
      • Syodontidae
        • Syodon
        • Australosyodon
        • Archaeosyodon
      • Deuterosaurus
      • Titanophoneus
      • Anteosaurinae (/ Tribus Anteosaurini)
        • Anteosaurus
        • Doliosauriscus
  • Tapinocephalia
    • Styracocephalus
    • Titanosuchidae
      • Titanosuchus
      • Jonkeria
    • Tapinocephalidae
      • Tapinocanius
      • Ulemosaurus
      • Moschops
      • Struthiocephalus
      • Tapinocephalus

literature

• Robert L. Carroll: Paleontology and Evolution of the Vertebrates. Thieme-Verlag, Stuttgart, 1993, ISBN 3-13-774401-6
• Thomas S. Kemp: The Origin & Evolution of Mammals. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005. ISBN 0-19-850761-5

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Diadectomorpha Mikko's Phylogeny Archive ( Memento of the original from August 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Web links

Commons : Category “Dinocephalia”  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Palaeos.com - Therapsida: Dinocephalia
• University of Bristol: Dinocephalia