Homodontosaurus
| Homodontosaurus Temporal range:
Late Permian | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Clade: | Therapsida
|
| Clade: | †Therocephalia |
| Superfamily: | †Baurioidea |
| Genus: | †Homodontosaurus Broom, 1949 |
| Type species | |
| †Homodontosaurus kitchingi Broom, 1949
| |
Homodontosaurus is an extinct
Late Permian of South Africa. The type species Homodontosaurus kitchingi was named by South African paleontologist Robert Broom in 1949. Broom based his description on a small skull found in the Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone near Graaff-Reinet. The skull is very small, at about 55 millimetres (2.2 in) long and 20 millimetres (0.79 in) wide. Homodontosaurus has large eye sockets and an elongated snout. The lower jaw is long, thin, and curved. Numerous small teeth line the upper jaw and are long, pointed, and round in cross-section.[1]
When he first named Homodontosaurus in 1949, Broom considered it to be a
scaloposaurid therocephalian in 1956.[3] Scaloposaurids are now recognized as an artificial grouping of the juvenile forms of many therocephalians. Homodontosaurus has even been considered the juvenile form of the larger therocephalian Tetracynodon.[4] Homodontosaurus and most other scalopodontids are now classified as basal members of Baurioidea
.
References
- ^ a b Broom, R. (1949). "New fossil reptile genera from the Bernard Price collection". Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 21 (1–2): 187–194.[permanent dead link]
- .
- ^ Watson, D.M.S.; Romer, A.S. (1956). "A classification of therapsid reptiles". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 114 (2): 37–89.
- hdl:2246/5362. Archived from the originalon 2012-09-19. Retrieved 2012-02-19.