Rubidgea

Rubidgea
Temporal range: Permian
Skull of Rubidgea atrox
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Order: Therapsida
Family: †Gorgonopsidae
Tribe: †Rubidgeini
Genus: †Rubidgea
Type species
Rubidgea atrox
Broom, 1938

Rubidgea is an extinct genus of therapsid belonging to the Gorgonopsidae. It had very large canines functioning as saber-teeth, longer than the teeth of the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex.[1] It lived in the Permian period, specifically the Wuchiapingian Stage. Rubidgea reached a length of 3.4 metres (11 ft) and had a 46 centimetres (1.51 ft) long skull.[2] Rubidgea was native to what is now South Africa, and based on its overall morphology, is considered to be the most robust and powerful of the gorgonopsids known. Though some of its relatives, such as the Russian Inostrancevia were as large or larger, they were far more slender in build when compared to Rubidgea.[3]

Classification

Restoration

Below is a cladogram from the phylogenetic analysis of Gebauer (2007):[4]

Gorgonopsia 

Aloposaurus

Cyonosaurus

Aelurosaurus


Gorgonopsidae

Scylacognathus

Eoarctops

Gorgonops

Njalila

Lycaenops

Arctognathus

Inostrancevia


Rubidgeinae

Aelurognathus

Rubidgea

Sycosaurus

Clelandina














See also

  1. ↑ Blaire van Valkenburgh and Ian Jenkins (2002). "Evolutionary patterns in the history of Permo-Triassic and Cenozoic synapsid predators" (PDF). Paleontological Society Papers. 8: 267–289.
  2. ↑ http://www.palaeocritti.com/by-group/gorgonopsia/rubidgea
  3. ↑ Anton, Mauricio (2013). Sabertooth.
  4. ↑ Gebauer, E.V.I. (2007). Phylogeny and evolution of the Gorgonopsia with a special reference to the skull and skeleton of GPIT/RE/7113 ('Aelurognathus?' parringtoni) (PDF) (Ph.D. thesis). Tübingen: Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen. pp. 1–316.
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