Simorhinella

Simorhinella
Temporal range: Late Permian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Order: Therapsida
Suborder: Therocephalia
Family: Lycosuchidae
Genus: Simorhinella
Broom, 1915
Type species
Simorhinella baini
Broom, 1915

Simorhinella (meaning "little pug-nose" in Greek) is an extinct genus of therocephalian therapsid from the Late Permian of South Africa. It is known from a single species, Simorhinella baini, named by South African paleontologist Robert Broom in 1915. Broom named it on the basis of a single fossil collected by the British Museum of Natural History in 1878 that included the skull and jaws forward from the eye sockets.[1] The skull is unusual in that it has an extremely short and deep snout, unlike the longer and lower snouts of most other therocephalians. Because of the skull's distinctiveness, the classification of Simorhinella within Therocephalia is uncertain.[2] However, a 2014 study proposed that it was closely related to the basal therocephalian Lycosuchus, placing it in the family Lycosuchidae.[3]

References

  1. Broom, R. (1915). "On some new Carnivorous Therapsids in the Collection of the British Museum". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 85 (2): 163–173. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1915.tb07409.x.
  2. Abdala, F.; Rubidge, B. S.; Van Den Heever, J. (2008). "The Oldest Therocephalians (Therapsida, Eutheriodontia) and the Early Diversification of Therapsida". Palaeontology. 51 (4): 1011. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00784.x.
  3. Abdala, F.; Kammerer, C. F.; Day, M. O.; Jirah, S.; Rubidge, B. S. (2014). "Adult morphology of the therocephalian Simorhinella bainifrom the middle Permian of South Africa and the taxonomy, paleobiogeography, and temporal distribution of the Lycosuchidae". Journal of Paleontology. 88 (6): 1139. doi:10.1666/13-186.


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