Scylacops

Scylacops
Temporal occurrence
	Upper Perm
	255 million years
Locations
	South Africa , Cistecephalus -assemblage zone of the Beaufort group ;
Systematics
	Synapsids (Synapsida)
	Therapsids (Therapsida)
	Theriodontia
	Gorgonopsia
	Gorgonopsidae
	Scylacops
Scientific name
	Scylacops
	Broom , 1913

Scylacops is a genus of the carnivorous Theriodontia , a group of the so-called "mammal-like reptiles" ( Therapsida ). The species of the genus lived during the Upper Permian in South Africa , about 260 to 251 million years ago today. The type species was described after an almost completely preserved skull that was found in 1913 near the South African city of Beaufort West in the Karoo .

description

Scylacops had incisors with a length of 23 millimeters and saber-shaped canines. The skull was 19 inches long and nearly 13 inches wide. The head was very flat and resembled that of Gorgonops . The ears were far back on the head. The tail was short in relation to the body. The legs of Scylacops stood vertically under the body. This enabled him to run fast and this made him superior to other reptiles of his time such as the Dicynodontians . Scylacops could reach a length of two meters. It is not clear whether it already had a fur like the later mammals or a smooth skin or still had scales.

Systematics

The first skull of Scylacops was found by Sidney Henry Haughton in 1913 and described by a doctor and paleontologist practicing in South Africa, Robert Broom . Broom immediately noticed the resemblance to Gorgonops and the Gorgonopsia described by Harry Govier Seeley . After he had previously formed his own family, the Scylacopidae with Cyniscops , Cyniscopoides and Sycocephalus , Scylacops was placed in 1988 by Robert Lynn Carroll to the Gorgonopsidae . These form a subgroup of the Gorgonopsia, to which Inostrancevia and Gorgonops also belong. They all belong to the mammal-like reptiles ( Therapsida ), which were the dominant living beings on the land in their time. So far, two types of Scylacops are known:

Scylacops capensis Broom, 1913
Scylacops bigendens (Brink & Kitching, 1953), first described as Sycocephalus bigendens Brink & Kitching, 1953

Scylacops was, due to its similar anatomy , relatively closely related to Sauroctonus and is placed with this in the subfamily Gorgonopsinae .

Individual evidence

^ R. Broom: On a nearly perfect skull of a new species of the gorgonopsia. Annals of the South African Museum, 12, 1, pp. 8-10, 1913 (first description of Scylacops capensis )
^ R. Broom: On the Gorgonopsia, a suborder of the Mammal-like Reptiles. Procedures of the Zoological Society of London, pp. 225-230, 1913
^ DMS Watson and AS Romer: A Classification of Therapsid Reptiles. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, 114, pp. 35-89, Cambridge 1956
^ RL Carroll: Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. WH Freeman and Company, New York 1988
↑ Scylacops in The Paleobiology Database (Eng.)
^ R. Broom: A revision of the reptiles of the Karroo. Annals of the South African Museum, 7, 6, pp. 361-366, 1913

[Broom_1913a-1] R. Broom: On a nearly perfect skull of a new species of the gorgonopsia. Annals of the South African Museum, 12, 1, pp. 8-10, 1913 (first description of Scylacops capensis )

[Broom_1913b-2] R. Broom: On the Gorgonopsia, a suborder of the Mammal-like Reptiles. Procedures of the Zoological Society of London, pp. 225-230, 1913

[Romer-3] DMS Watson and AS Romer: A Classification of Therapsid Reptiles. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, 114, pp. 35-89, Cambridge 1956

[Carroll-4] RL Carroll: Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. WH Freeman and Company, New York 1988

[Paleobiology-5] Scylacops in The Paleobiology Database (Eng.)

[Broom_1913c-6] R. Broom: A revision of the reptiles of the Karroo. Annals of the South African Museum, 7, 6, pp. 361-366, 1913