Neosaurus

Neosaurus
Temporal range: Early Permian
Holotype
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Family: †Sphenacodontidae
Genus: †Neosaurus
Nopsca, 1923
Type species
†Neosaurus cynodus
(Gervais, 1869)

Neosaurus is a pelycosaur-grade synapsid from the Early Permian of the Jura region of France. It is known only from a partial maxilla or upper jaw bone and an associated impression of the bone. The teardrop shape of the teeth in the jaw indicate that Neosaurus belongs to the family Sphenacodontidae, which includes the better-known Dimetrodon from the southwestern United States. The maxilla was first attributed to an early diapsid reptile in 1857, and later a crocodylomorph in 1869, before finally being identified as a sphenacodont synapsid in 1899, a classification that still holds today.[1]

A species of the hadrosaur dinosaur Hypsibema, H. missouriensis, is also called Neosaurus, although because the name was already in use, that species was renamed Parrosaurus before being reassigned to Hypsibema.

References

  1. ↑ Falconnet, J. (2013). "The sphenacodontid synapsid Neosaurus cynodus, and related material, from the Permo-Carboniferous of France". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. doi:10.4202/app.2012.0105.
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