Patranomodon nyaphulii

This is the earliest known anomodont, an important group of therapsids that lead to the dominant large herbivores of the end of the Permian and the Early Triassic.

Name

Patranomodon nyaphulii

Authority

Rubidge & Hopson, 1990

Meaning of generic name

[Father of anomodonts]

Size

Skull length: 5 cm ,Length: 30 cm

Remains

Holotype (NMQR 3000): Skull with lower jaw and postcranial elements

Age and Distribution

Horizon: Eodicynodon Assemblage zone, base of the Beaufort Group, Middle Permian (Wordian)

Type locality: Combrinkskraal farm, Prince Albert district, South Africa.

Classification

Synapsida Therapsida Anomonodontia

Further Reading

B. S. Rubidge and J. A. Hopson. 1990. A new anomodont therapsid from South Africa and its bearing on the ancestry of Dicynodontia. South African Journal of Science 86:43-45.

B. S. Rubidge and J. A. Hopson. 1996. A primitive anomodont therapsid from the base of the Beaufort Group (Upper Permian) of South Africa. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 117:115–139.