Acleistorhinidae
Acleistorhinidae | |
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Skull reconstruction of Colobomycter pholeter
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | †Parareptilia |
Order: | †Procolophonomorpha |
Superfamily: | †Lanthanosuchoidea |
Family: | †Acleistorhinidae Daly, 1969[1] |
Genera | |
Acleistorhinidae is an
Acleistorhinidae is notable for being the oldest-known parareptilian clade. The family is diagnosed by the presence two
Diet
Two specimens of acleistorhinids described from the
In acleistorhinids, the marginal teeth, which are small and recurved, are suggestive of an insectivorous diet, as they probably were used for gripping and piercing arthropod cuticle. The denticulated palate, with three pairs of tooth fields and smaller teeth in between the fields, is seen as an adaptation for holding food in the oral cavity.[6]
The teeth, which possess cutting edges, may also have been suitable for a carnivorous diet in which vertebrate flesh may have been consumed.[7] It is possible that acleistorhinids would have preyed on tetrapods that were small enough to swallow whole.[6] It is likely that one acleistorhinid, Colobomycter pholeter, specialized either on invertebrates with hard cuticles or on small tetrapods.[8]