Lanthanosuchoidea is an extinct superfamily of

ankyramorph Ankyramorpha ("anchor forms") is an extinct clade of procolophonomorph parareptiles which lived between the early Cisuralian epoch (middle Sakmarian stage) to the latest Triassic period (latest Rhaetian stage) of Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Aus ...

parareptile Parareptilia ("at the side of reptiles") is a subclass or clade of basal sauropsids (reptiles), typically considered the sister taxon to Eureptilia (the group that likely contains all living reptiles and birds). Parareptiles first arose near th ...

s from the middle Pennsylvanian to the middle

Guadalupian The Guadalupian is the second and middle series/epoch of the Permian. The Guadalupian was preceded by the Cisuralian and followed by the Lopingian. It is named after the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico and Texas, and dates between 272.95 ± ...

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...

( Moscovian -

Wordian In the geologic timescale, the Wordian is an age or stage of the Permian. It is the middle of three subdivisions of the Guadalupian Epoch or Series. The Wordian lasted between and million years ago (Ma). It was preceded by the Roadian and f ...

stages) of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, North America and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

. It was named by the Russian paleontologist Ivachnenko in 1980, and it contains two families

Acleistorhinidae Acleistorhinidae is an extinct family of Late Carboniferous and Early Permian-aged ( Moscovian to Kungurian stage) parareptiles. Acleistorhinids are most diverse from the Richards Spur locality of the Early Permian of Oklahoma. Richards Spur ...

and

Lanthanosuchidae Lanthanosuchidae is a family of procolophonomorph parareptile Parareptilia ("at the side of reptiles") is a subclass or clade of basal sauropsids (reptiles), typically considered the sister taxon to Eureptilia (the group that likely contain ...

Phylogeny

Lanthanosuchoidea is a

node-based taxon Phylogenetic nomenclature is a method of nomenclature for taxa in biology that uses phylogenetic definitions for taxon names as explained below. This contrasts with the traditional approach, in which taxon names are defined by a '' type'', which ...

defined in 1997 as "the most recent common ancestor of ''

Lanthanosuchus ''Lanthanosuchus'' is an extinct genus of parareptile from the Late Permian. It was found at Isheevo in Tatarstan The Republic of Tatarstan (russian: Республика Татарстан, Respublika Tatarstan, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə tət ...

'', ''

Lanthaniscus ''Lanthaniscus'' is an extinct genus of lanthanosuchoid ankyramorph parareptile known from the Guadalupian epoch (Late Roadian to latest Wordian age) of Eastern Europe, Russia. ''Lanthaniscus'' was first named by M. F. Ivakhnenko in 1980 and t ...

'', and ''

Acleistorhinus ''Acleistorhinus'' (ah-kles-toe-RYE-nuss) is an extinct genus of parareptile known from the Early Permian (middle Kungurian stage) of Oklahoma. It is notable for being the earliest known anapsid reptile yet discovered. The morphology of the l ...

''". The

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...

below follows the topology from a 2011 analysis by Ruta ''et al.'' The

below follows the topology from a 2016 analysis by MacDougall ''et al.'' However, the phylogenetic analysis conducted by Cisneros ''et al.'' (2021) did not recover a clade uniting lanthanosuchids and acleistorhinids to the exclusion of all other parareptiles. Instead, acleistorhinids were recovered as the sister group of the clade

Procolophonia The Procolophonia are a suborder of herbivorous reptiles that lived from the Middle Permian till the end of the Triassic period. They were originally included as a suborder of the Cotylosauria (later renamed Captorhinida Carroll 1988) but are ...

, while lanthanosuchids were recovered within the procolophonian subgroup

Pareiasauromorpha Pareiasauromorpha is a group of parareptilian amniotes from the Permian. It includes genera found all over the world, with many genera from Asia and South Africa. The clade was first used as a group by Linda A. Tsuji in 2011, in order to grou ...

References

Procolophonomorphs Permian reptiles Prehistoric reptiles of Asia Prehistoric reptiles of Europe Prehistoric reptiles of North America {{Permian-reptile-stub