family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of
dicynodont
Dicynodontia is an extinct clade of anomodonts, an extinct type of non-mammalian therapsid. Dicynodonts were herbivorous animals with a pair of tusks, hence their name, which means 'two dog tooth'. Members of the group possessed a horny, typic ...
therapsid
Therapsida is a major group of eupelycosaurian synapsids that includes mammals, their ancestors and relatives. Many of the traits today seen as unique to mammals had their origin within early therapsids, including limbs that were oriented more ...
s from the
Late Permian
Late may refer to:
* LATE, an acronym which could stand for:
** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia
** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law
** Local average treatment effect, ...
of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and
Zambia
Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...
. It includes the genera ''
Cistecephalus
''Cistecephalus'' is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsid from the Late Permian of southern Africa (South Africa and Zambia). It was a small, specialised, burrowing dicynodont, possibly with habits similar to a modern mole. The head was flat ...
'', ''
Cistecephaloides
''Cistecephaloides'' is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsids of the Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone, ''Cistecephalus'' Assemblage Zone, Beaufort Group of South Africa.Kawingasaurus''. Cistecephalids are thought to have had a fossorial or burrowing lifestyle, with adaptations such as broad skulls, strong forelimbs, and squat bodies. A similar group of dicynodonts called the pylaecephalids were also fossorial, although to a lesser extent than cistecephalids. Cistecephalids showed a high level of endemism, with each of the five known species unique to a single region.
Description
Cistecephalids were small dicynodonts. Most species, with the exception of '' Kembawacela'', lacked tusks, but sexually dimorphic supraorbital ridges were present. Cistecephalids had boxy, broad skulls with relatively laterally directed temporal openings, a result of a considerably broadened intertemporal region. ''Sauroscaptor'', the most basal genus of the family, had a less extreme broadening of the intratemporal region than in other members of the family. In the derived genera ''Cistecephaloides'' and ''Kawingasaurus'', the intratemporal portion of the skull was broader than the skull was long. Cistecephalids also had a relatively posteriorly positioned pineal foramen, which in ''Kembawacela'' and ''Sauroscaptor'' was displaced all the way to the posterior margin of the skull. They also had anteriorly directed orbits; they may have had binocular vision, which may have been an adaptation for nocturnality or an insectivorous lifestyle.
Classification
The Cistecephalidae contains five named genera each with one species. It is a member of the Dicynodont clade
Emydopoidea
Emydopoidea is a group of Late Permian dicynodont therapsids. It includes the small-bodied ''Emydops'', ''Myosaurus'', and kingoriids, and the burrowing cistecephalids. Below is a cladogram from Kammerer ''et al.'' (2011) showing the phylogenet ...