Icticephalus

Icticephalus
Temporal range: Middle - Late Permian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Order: Therapsida
Suborder: Therocephalia
Superfamily: Baurioidea
Genus: Icticephalus
Broom, 1915
Type species
Icticephalus polycynodon
Broom, 1915

Icticephalus is an extinct genus of therocephalian therapsid from the Middle and Late Permian of South Africa. The type species Icticephalus polycynodon was named from the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone by South African paleontologist Robert Broom in 1915.[1] Specimens of Icticephalus have also been described from the Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone. Broom originally placed Icticephalus in the Scaloposauridae, a group of very small therocephalians. Most scaloposaurids are now thought to be juvenile forms of other therocephalians, and Scaloposauridae is no longer recognized as a valid grouping. Icticephalus and other former scaloposaurids are now classified as basal members of Baurioidea.[2]

References

  1. Benton, M.J. (1983). "Dinosaur success in the Triassic: a noncompetitive ecological model". The Quarterly Review of Biology 58 (1): 29–55. doi:10.1086/413056.
  2. Huttenlocker, A. (2009). "An investigation into the cladistic relationships and monophyly of therocephalian therapsids (Amniota: Synapsida)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 157 (4): 865–891. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00538.x.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, August 21, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.